Govt plans to carve out 124 new hoblis in state

In a major redrawing of its administrative divisions at the grassroots level, the state government is considering carving out 124 new hoblis.

Hoblis are the third tier in the administrative divisions in the state after districts and taluks. At present, there are 747 hoblis in the state. The proposals to carve out new hoblis were based on the recommendations submitted by the four regional commissioners to the state government.

The regional commissioners based their recommendations on the population data, local demand and quantum of revenue transactions.

Revenue department officials point out that having more hoblis will help in decentralisation of general administration. Each hobli is headed by an official of the rank of deputy tahsildar. People can get their revenue transactions like issue of pahani, applying for various certificates done at the hobli level instead of going to the taluk headquarters.

Besides, various departments, including meteorology, agriculture, take hobli as the unit for their data bases like measuring rainfall, crop yield among others, officials said.
However, creating 124 new hoblis comes with a huge price – Rs 124 crore. By modest estimates, at least Rs 1 crore is required for creating a new hobli.

Sources in the government said the new hoblis will be carved out in phases as the financial implications are huge.

The highest number of new hoblis have been recommended from the Belagavi subdivision - 57, with 43 in Belagavi district alone, followed by Haveri (6), Gadag (3), Vijayapura (2) and 1 each in Uttara Kannada, Dharwad and Bagalkot districts.

As many as 40 new hoblis have been suggested for the Kalaburagi division, 23 for Mysuru and 4 for Bengaluru division. There is also a proposal before the government to carve out 11 new assistant commissioners’ offices in the state. Setting up of a new assistant commissioner office will cost the state exchequer Rs 11 crore each, officials said.

The new hoblis are:

Devanahalli (Bengaluru Rural district), Harihara (Davangere district), Challakere (Chitradurga), Mulbagal (Kolar), Chamarajanagar (Chamarajanagar), Udupi (Udupi), Basavanabagevadi (Vijayapura), Ranebennur (Haveri),
Hungund (Bagalkot), Ron (Gadag),
Gangavathi (Koppal).