Telangana will have 21, not 17, new districts taking the total number of districts to a whopping 31. The number of household in each district will be restricted to 300,000 to make administration effective and accessible.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has in principle accepted the demand from various sections of the State for carving out four more districts Sricilla in Karimnagar, Janagam in Warangal, Asifabad in Adilabad and Gadwal in Mahabubnagar district.
Agreeing to the demands the Chief Minister said in a meeting of officials and public representatives, “When the people in the new districts celebrate Dussehra festival, the people in Gadwal, Janagaon and Sricilla should not feel sad.”
Faced with agitation and strong demands from different quarters the CM has formed a high power committee headed by senior party MP K Keshav Rao.
The committee, which also include deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali and other Ministers Jagdishwara Reddy, P Srinivas Reddy and Jogu Ramanna met in Hyderabad on Tuesaday to discuss the demands before finalising its report. The committee will identify the mandals and the revenue divisions to be included in these new districts. Officials and public representatives were asked to apprise the committee of their views and fully cooperate with the committee.
The sources said that the CM was in favor of increasing the number of new districts to satisfy the demands from the people.
The committee was expected to submit its report to the CM in a couple of days and the final notification will come into effect from the day of Dussehra festival on October 11.
State Home Minister N Narasimha Reddy also made a representation to the committee against bifurcation of Hyderabad district. “The State capital is like the nose on the face. You can not break it”, he said opposing the suggestion from some quarters that the Government should divide the Hyderabad district in to two.
Meanwhile Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed the officials not to implement the suggestion of changing the name of proposed Viqarabad district to Anantagiri. The direction came after the Hyderabad MP and MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi wrote a letter to him opposing the change of the name.
Owaisi pointed out in his letter that Ranga Reddy district as an area originally belonged to the nobles of Paigah family of Asif Jahi era. Shamsabad was named after the head of Paigah family Shamsul Umra, and Viqarabad was named after another noble Viqar-ul-Mulk. Owaisi reminded the CM that he had promised many times that Viqarabad will be made a district.
Similarly the Chief Minister also decided not to change the name of Mahabubabad district being carved out of Warangal.