Amaravati: The AP CM Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s proposal to upscale the existing dists appears facing opposition from in his own own party as is the complaint with his own distributive capitals project.
Dharmana Prasada Rao, YSR Congress Party lawmaker from Srikakulam dist., voiced his own dissent on the move to reorganise the dists with the Lok Sabha constituencies as the basis. He named for involvement of representatives from political parties & civil community within the procedure of reorganising the dists.
Prasada Rao has been a close follower of Jagan’s dad Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy by holding the key portfolio of Revenue in his own cabinet. However Jagan preferred Dharmana Krishna Das over Prasada Rao for a berth in his own Council of Ministers, leaving his own dad’s aide high & dry. Prasada Rao is a younger brother of Krishna Das.
Receiving end
Prasad Rao, an outspoken leader in Uttarandhra area, stated the pattern proposed to utilize for making new dists going to be detrimental to his own local Srikakulam dist.
“Etcherla & Rajam Assembly constituencies, with a hub of edu institutions & industries, in Srikakulam dist. are proposed to be merged into the neighboring Viziangaram dist. by discussing the Lok Sabha constituency as a dist.. In case that happens, Srikakulam going to be robbed of development (devt) & lose its vitality,” Prasada Rao informed media people.
According to the proposals under govt’s consideration Srikakulam with 10 Assembly segments going to be unbundled with the merger of some of the parts into Vijayangagaram dist.
And some of the remaining into the newly created tribal dist. with Araku as the HQ (headquarters). In case Palakonda Assembly constituency from Srikakulam dist. goes to the proposed Araku tribal dist., locals of Kothuru & Bhamini mandals going to be refused accessibility to the dist. HQ (headquarters) within the newly created dist., he contended.
Taking a leaf out of CM KCR’s book
Jaganmohan Reddy, awhile in opposition, assured to upsize the existing 13 dists into 25 in-line with the amount of the Lok Sabha constituencies throughout his own Prajasankalpa Yatra by taking a leaf out of Telangana (TL) CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s book.
Accordingly, his own govt is getting ready the field to start the project on the Republic Day on Jan 26, 2024. K. Raghuramakrishna Raju, a dissident party MP from West Godavari dist., already picked holes in Jagan Reddy’s schedules to shift the executive capital out of Amaravati within the name of decentralisation & inclusive development (devt) paradigm.
“The proposal to create extra dists may end up like opening the proverbial Pandora’s box as extra no. of chiefs from our party are likely to come out with conflicting views within the near future,” commented a Sr. YCP leader.
The CM asserted that the proposal for new dists is aimed to make sure decentralisation of administration & taking governance right as many as the doorsteps of citizens. The proposal is stated to have got (1) relevance in dist. like Ananthapur with a vast geographical region & dist.
HQ (headquarters) tucked far away in a corner. Some of the remote parts in Ananthapur dist. are alienated from that dist. HQ (headquarters) with accessibility to Bangalore.
Telangana (TL)’s experience
The TRS govt reorganised the existing 10 dists into 33 in Telangana (TL) shortly after it had come to power. Is the administration actually took to the doorsteps of citizens within the nation’s youngest state after it’s extra dists?
M. Padmanabha Reddy of the Forum for Great Governance informed this writer that Telangana (TL)’s experience disclosed that rise of dists going to no way support enhance quality in administration.
Instead, the administration collapsed. Apart from, it’s a massive load on people exchequer, he clarified. Telangana (TL) govt has incurred INR 1,500 cr for making every dist. with bungalows for collectors, Superintendents of Police & the different dept. heads, Reddy stated. In this virtual age, governance could be delivered using videoconferencing by harnessing IT tools. Thus, social distance doesn’t issue, he argued.