For Andhra Pradesh's decentralised development, expert panel recommends Karnataka model

While Jaganmohan Reddy government’s dispersed three capital formula is inspired by far-off South Africa, its blueprint for decentralized development of all regions is motivated by the next-door neighbour - Karnataka.

Apart from providing for the setting up of three capitals – the executive at Visakhapatnam, the legislature at Amaravati and judiciary at Kurnool, a bill passed by the Andhra Pradesh assembly last month (but stuck in the council) allows setting up of local zones for planning and development.

A report of an expert committee based on which the bill is brought had asked the state to explore the zonal model with emphasis on Karnataka’s Regional Commissioners.

“While the Divisional Commissioner arrangement is there in many states, the Karnataka model is pioneering in that it has created the regional commissioner post, the difference being the functions. RCs in Karnataka are required to act beyond mere supervision to assume the role of advising the collectors and more importantly coordinating between them,” the GN Rao committee report, in the section – Proposed administrative and governance set-up: Regional or divisional institutions, points.

Divisions/regions are administrative jurisdictions, comprising a group of districts.

The report states “inter-departmental framing of problems and coordinating solutions as the key responsibility of the RCs.” “The regional commissioners are responsible for supervising and coordinating the work of district offices, both police and revenue, to enforce efficiency. Furthermore, the commissioners are an intermediate link between the state and district administration.” The RCs also coordinate with their counterparts.

Karnataka’s 30 districts are divided into four divisions headed by four RCs at Belagavi, Bengaluru, Kalaburagi and Mysore.

“AP is one of the few states which lacks this administrative tier. The government can explore this model. Zones provide a good platform for this tier. Furthermore, recommended that planning for and administering the natural resources is prioritized as a task for the regional/divisional commissioners.”

Stating so, the expert committee report has advised classification of 13 district Andhra Pradesh into four zones – North Coastal Region (Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam), Central Coastal Region (East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna), South Coastal Region (Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore) and the Rayalaseema Region (Chittoor, Kadapa, Anantapuram, Kurnool).

Reddy government is planning to reorganize Andhra Pradesh into 25 districts.

"The classification of these regions with their Regional Commissionerates would align with the overall distributed development and decentralized governance strategy,” the report says, stressing on the often-referred concept by Reddy government.

Once the bill becomes an act, a notification would demarcate the state into zones, and specify its administrator etc., aspects.

According to “the decentralisation of governance and inclusive development of all regions …” bill, Zonal planning and development boards would be constituted with the purpose of plan-projects preparation, coordinating their implementation, securing funds and also recommend measures to accelerate the pace of development in backward areas within that zone.