The commercial hub of Saraguru has been notified as a new taluk in the district. With this, Mysuru will have eight districts (the others being Mysuru, K.R. Nagar, Periyapatana, Hunsur, Nanjangud, T. Narsipur, and H.D. Kote).
The existing Nadakacheri at Saraguru is being made up and will start functioning as the taluk office from Saturday. An announcement on this will be made at the Republic Day function on Friday at H.D. Kote, said Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep. He said additional posts have been created for the new taluk but no postings have been made yet.
The State government had announced the constitution of new taluks in the 2017-18 budget, and administrative approval was given last September. It has now come into effect with the gazette notification issued on Monday.
Saraguru — hived out of H.D. Kote taluk — has 101 villages under its ambit. Its elevation to a taluk is expected to help shore up development in the region. Saraguru taluk will share a boundary with H.D. Kote in the west and north, Nanjangud in the east, and Gundlupet of Chamarajanagar district in the south.
The undivided H.D. Kote was spread over 1,618 sq km. It was reckoned to be too big and lacked connectivity or easy access to government offices located in the taluk headquarters. Farmers in remote locations had to travel as much as 100 km a day to reach the administrative offices of the local tahshildar and revenue officials. Now, H.D. Kote taluk will have 164 villages in its ambit.
Distance apart, one of the key arguments in favour of carving out new taluks was the perceived necessity to break up the larger administrative units into smaller ones for focussed growth specific to the region.
But it has been a struggle lasting decades, with the first study (to assess the feasibility of new taluks across the State) conducted by Vasudeva Rao Commission in 1973. This was followed by a study by the T.M. Hundekar committee in 1984, the P.C. Gaddigoudar committee in 1986, and the M.P. Prakash committee in 2007.
