KCR okay for changes

CREATION OF NEW DISTRICTS

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao expressed his willingness to make changes in the proposal of new districts and inclusion of new mandals and revenue divisions after eliciting public opinion. The Chief Minister, however, ruled out the possibility of carving Gadwal as a new district.

It may be mentioned here that ever since the government announced that it would reorganise the districts, there has been a strong demand for making Gadwal as a district. There have been several protests and agitations over the issue. On Saturday, senior Congress leader D K Aruna who represents the constituency had even offered to resign from the State Assembly if the government does not accept her demand.

During the meeting the Chief Minister had with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders including Ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs from Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahbubnagar and Nizamabad districts, several new suggestions on the names for the proposed districts also came up for discussion.

Transport Minister P Mahendar Reddy urged Chandrashekar Rao to name Shamshabad district as Ranga Reddy and Vikarabad as Anantagiri district. He also asked the Chief Minister to make Tandur as new revenue division. The proposal to merge three mandals from Chevella and Kalwakurthi Assembly constituencies with Shamshabad district and the inclusion of Kodangal and Bomranpet mandals in Vikarabad district were also made during the meeting.

The demand to promote Kalwakurthi mandal headquarters as revenue division by Congress MLA from Kalwakurthi Vamshi Chand Reddy and his proposed dharna on Monday also figured in the meeting. But the TRS leaders turned down the demand.

The other issues that figured during the meeting were transferring of Samsthan Narayanpur mandal from Nalgonda to the proposed Yadadri district and the demand made by tribal organisations to create a tribal district which could be called as Bhadrachalam district. Chandrashekar Rao shared his views on giving importance to tribals in the proposed creation of Kothagudem district from the existing Khammam district.

Leaders from Nizamabad district including Agriculture Minister P Srinivas Reddy requested the Chief Minister to ensure equitable distribution of assets and natural resources between existing Nizamabad and the proposed Kamareddy districts.

Chandrashekar Rao assured the party leaders that inclusion of new mandals and revenue divisions in the new districts would be done in a scientific manner as the government was committed to the all-round development of all places in the State, he said.

The Chief Minister enquired about the arrangements being made to start the functioning of new districts, revenue divisions and mandals from Dasara this year. He sought the cooperation of all people’s representatives in the massive exercise the government had taken up in a short time. There should be a festive atmosphere when the new districts became a reality, he told the party leaders.