The
decks are cleared for forma tion of new districts with the all-party meeting on
Saturday endorsing Telangana government's decision to increase the number of
districts to hasten the growth and development of backward areas in the state.
This
move to reorganize the districts comes almost 32 years after the then
government in united AP had taken the revolutionary step to replace taluks with
more compact units known as mandals to bring the administration closer to
people.
To
facilitate the formation of mandals, the AP Districts (Formation) Act, 1974,
was amended through Act 14 of 1985 to abolish the taluks and firkas and replace
them with mandals. The AP Districts (Formation) Rules 1984 were notified,
spelling out the guidelines and procedure for the formation of new districts,
revenue divisions and revenue mandals.
Prior
to 1984-85, a five-tier revenue administrative set-up consisting of district,
revenue division, taluk, firka and revenue village was in vogue. It was
replaced by a fourtier system comprising district, revenue division, revenue
mandal and revenue village as units. Districts (zillas) were formed for the
first time in Telangana in 1865 during the reign of the fifth Nizam
Afzal-ud-Daula in the erstwhile Hyderabad state.
There
were only eight districts in Telangana till 1930s. Baghat (Hyderabad) district
was created in the late 1930s by bifurcating Atraf-eBalda district. After the
police action in 1948, Hyderabad district was formed by merging Baghat and
Atraf-e-Balda.Khammam district was carved out of Warangal in 1953 and
Bhadrachalam division was added to Khammam in 1959 after the formation of then
Andhra PradeshState in 1956.
Thus,
Telangana comprised 9 districts till August 1978, when Hyderabad district was
bifurcated into Hyderabad (urban) and Hyderabad (rural) districts during Dr
Marri Channa Reddy's regime. Hyderabad (rural) was named as Rangareddy
district, after late K V Ranga Reddy, the former deputy chief minister of AP.
Status
quo has prevailed for the last 38 years with no new district being formed in
Telangana though more revenue divisions were created after the taluks were
reorganized into revenue mandals in 198485. The then government under N T Rama
Rao's stewardship created the mandals in place of taluks and firkas in the
entire AP. The 110 taluks in Telangana region were replaced with 459 revenue
mandals.
The
entire exercise of formation of mandals was taken up under the provisions of AP
Districts (Formation) Act and Rules and apart from a committee of officials, a
cabinet sub-committee was formed to oversee the entire exercise from the issue
of draft notifica tions to the final notifi cations.
The
formation of mandals was challenged in the HC but was upheld in successive
judgements. Before 1981, the 10 districts of Telangana had 28 revenue divisions
and the number has since gone up to 42 with the formation of new divisions in
the districts. The 10,434 revenue villages come under the 459 revenue mandals
in the state.
In
fulfilment of the poll promise of TRS to form new districts, the state
government appointed an official committee headed by the state chief secretary
to draw up the proposals for the formation of new districts. A cabinet
sub-committee was also formed to elicit the opinions of state-holders. After
the All-party meeting, the government is issuing the draft notification for the
formation of a total of 27 districts, 57 revenue divisions and 533 revenue
mandals in place of the existing 10 districts, 42 revenue divisions and 459
revenue mandals.
Chief
minister KCR has asserted that reorganization of districts, revenue divisions
and mandals is being done in a transparent manner by following the provisions
of the Districts (Formation) Act and the guidelines and procedure stipulated
under the Districts (Formation) Rules.
All
related issues pertaining to revenue administration, functioning of other
departments, the lower courts, panchayat raj and urban local bodies are being
tackled simultaneously. After the publication of preliminary notification, the
draft proposals will be displayed at village chavidi, offices of gram
panchayat, mandal parishads, zilla parishads and municipal wards, municipal
offices and revenue divisional officer, sub-collectorassistant collector and
tahsildar's offices (mandal revenue offices) for stakeholders to convey
objections and suggestions within 30 days.
After
considering the objections and suggestions, the government will issue final
notification, paving the way for new districts to come into being by Dasara
(October 11).
(The author is an MLC and also a journalist)
(Source- toi)
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