Districts rejig to be huge challenge for Andhra Pradesh Government

Vijayawada: District reorganisation is going to be a tough task for the State government with increasing number of objections over boundaries and naming of new districts.

Secretary, Planning department, GSRKR Vijay Kumar conducted a review meeting on districts reorganisation with Collectors of Krishna, Guntur, West Godavari and Prakasam districts here on Wednesday.

Later speaking to mediapersons, the planning secretary said objections on districts reorganisation will be received till March 3. He said a notification on the reorganisation was already issued and the District Collectors are receiving objections. He said the District Collectors will submit their reports to the government by March 10 and the new districts will be formed on April 2.

The planning secretary said that geographical factors, population, social, historical and cultural aspects were taken into consideration in the districts reorganisation. Referring to division of employees, he said that they were discussing on the issue and providing the required infrastructure facilities for offices in new districts. He said there was no problem in reorganisation of revenue divisions and less number of objections received regarding villages and mandals.

As far as the objections received so far, there was a demand for a separate Markapur district in Guntur district, retaining Kandukur revenue division in Prakasam, Dwaraka Tirumala in Eluru district.

Meanwhile the demand for naming of new districts is also increasing. There have been demands for naming Krishna district after the national flag designer Pingali Venkaiah and newly-proposed Vijayawada district after Vangaveeti Mohan Ranga. Likewise in Guntur district there was a demand for forming Palnadu district with Gurazala as district headquarters and another demand for forming Tenali as a separate district.

There was a demand for retaining Pendurthi in Visakhapatnam instead of moving it to Anakapalle. People are demanding retaining part of Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam district instead of the proposal to merge it with the newly-formed Anakapalli district. There is a demand for retaining the name of Parvatipuram as Parvatipuram district instead of proposed Manyam district. Mentada of Salur constituency to be retained Vizianagaram district. Coming to Palakonda assembly segment, merging it with Manyam district is being opposed.

Coming to Nellore district, former minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy expressed dissatisfaction over merging Kaluvai, Rapur, Saidapur mandals in the newly-proposed Balaji district. He said water sharing will be another problem as Somasila project is situated to the south of Balaji district and to the north direction of Nellore district and entire Kandaleru dam is going to Balaji district.

Merging of Venkatagiri, Gudur and Sullurpet with Bajaji district and sparing Sarvepalli was also opposed. There is a demand for separate district for Gudur and Udayagiri.

In Prakasam district, there is a demand for retaining Kandukuru Assembly segment in Prakasam district and carving out Markapuram district from the demand for western part of Prakasam.

Coming to East Godavari district, the tribals of Rampachodavaram Agency region of East Godavari district are expressing concern over the proposal to merge Rampachodavaram with Paderu district which is more than 300 km away from the region. The tribals demand a separate Rampachodavaram District. There is also a demand for retaining Pedapudi mandal and Tallarevu mandal in Kakinada district.

In Kadapa district, people are demanding that Rajampet should be made as district headquarters instead of Rayachoti in the proposed Annamayya district.