In a major administrative reform in Andhra Pradesh, the Jaganmohan Reddy government has on Wednesday morning issued notification for the creation of 13 new districts.
The move, intended to ease governance and improve the accessibility of officials, would double the number of districts to 26 from the present 13 districts.
In an interesting move, the YSRCP regime chose to create one district containing Vijayawada city in the name of opposition TDP founder, legendary actor and former chief minister NT Rama Rao.
The Reddy government had earlier announced its intention to reorganise the existing 13 districts into 25, to go with the state's 25 Lok Sabha segments. However, the vast Araku agency constituency, spread over four districts as of now, is divided into two districts, according to the list released now.
Names of some of the new districts are – Alluri Sitharama Raju (Paderu as the headquarter) – named after the celebrated revolutionary who had led the tribals, other locals against the British a century ago, Annamayya (Rayachoty) – a 15th-century saint and music, sankirtana composer and Kona Seema (Amalapuram) – the picturesque Godavari delta area.
The new districts are expected to start functioning from Ugadi, the Telugu new year day.
The gazette notification said that the alteration of the distrait boundaries, under Section 3 of the Andhra Pradesh Districts (Formation) Act, 1974, is “in the interest of better administration and development of the areas concerned.”
Objections, suggestions are invited till 25 February from persons “likely to be affected” residing in the respective districts.
Following the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the K Chandrasekhar Rao government had earlier created 33 districts in place of the 10 that existed before in the Telangana region.
Full List of Districts and HQs:
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