Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asserted that the reorganisation of districts by his government was one of the bold steps taken for reforming the existing system to ensure that administration reached the doorstep of the common man.
The reform process initiated by the government would not stop here and it was proposed to take the reorganisation process to mandal and village levels. The government was working out plans to significantly enhance the number of gram panchayats and efforts were underway to convert tribal hamlets into gram panchayats soon.
“Reforms will continue and we are working out the modalities to create more gram panchayats, the basic units of administration. Efforts have also been launched to notify 15 to 20 new municipalities across the State,” he said. The completion of the ambitious land record purification would enable the government to have a clear idea relating to issues like the number of revenue villages that ought to be created in the State for administrative convenience.
The procedure relating to formation of new gram panchayats, mandals and districts was cumbersome and it would take time. The government was with an open mind and it would take up the process in consultation with all the stakeholders. The Chief Minister was replying to a debate on “administrative reforms: emergence of new establishments” that came up as short discussion in the Legislative Assembly on Friday.
He recalled that all the States except West Bengal and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, undertook creation of new districts for effective delivery of services to the people. The average population per district in Telangana was 36 lakh prior to reorganisation whereas the national average was only 19 lakh. Average district population in states like Haryana and Chhattisgarh was less than seven lakhs. The government had accordingly undertaken reorganisation of the districts to ensure that distances in the administration reaching out the people were removed.
The government created 14 new districts with less than two lakh families population, 10 districts with less than three lakh families and four districts with less than four lakh families. There were only three districts Hyderabad, old Ranga Reddy and Medchal which had more than four lakh families. The government aimed at covering all sections and sectors through a targeted approach and reorganisation of the districts would go a long way in this direction.
He described the Congress member S.A. Sampath Kumar’s claim on the government’s failure to get the reorganisation of districts notified by the Central government as “irresponsible and lacking any rational”. Reorganisation of districts was a State government’s subject and the State was at liberty to take decisions in this respect. The government, however, kept the Centre informed about the process and the reorganised districts had been recognised by the National Informatics Centre, Reserve Bank of India and other central organisations.