Telangana to have 21 new districts today; total goes to 31

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will attend the inauguration of Siddipet district, carved out of Medak, his home turf.

Hyderabad: Telangana will see the birth of 21 new districts on the auspicious occasion of Vijaya Dashmi on Tuesday, taking the total number of districts in India's youngest state to 31.

Telangana, which came into existence on June 2, 2014, as the 29th State of India, started out with 10 districts.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government said reorganisation of districts will help take the administration to people.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will formally inaugurate Siddipet district, being carved out of existing Medak district.

Telangana Assembly S Madhusudhana Chary will inaugurate Jayashankar district while Council Chairman K Swamy Goud will launch Jangaon district. Both these districts are being carved out of the existing Warangal district.

Warangal Rural, another district being carved out of existing Warangal, will be inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari.

Another Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahamood Ali will inaugurate Jagitial district, being created out of existing Karimnagar district.

Sixteen other districts will also be inaugurated simultaneously by the ministers. These districts are - Yadadri, Peddapally, Kamareddy, Medak, Mancherial, Vikarabad, Rajanna, Asifabad, Suryapet, Kothagudem, Nirmal, Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool, Mahabubabad, Jogulamba and Medchal (Malkajgiri).

Barring Hyderabad, the existing 10 districts have been split into three or four districts.

The reorganisation of districts was done as part of a massive exercise undertaken by the state government to revamp administrative units. The TRS government is also reorganising mandals (a low-level division of a district) and other administrative units.

The government appointed a committee, headed by Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, earlier and another panel led by TRS MP K Keshava Rao to go into the issue.

The reorganisation of districts also witnessed protests.

Opposition Congress, TDP and BJP have hit out at the TRS government for allegedly going about the reorganisation of districts in an unscientific and unilateral manner.

Leader of Opposition in the Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir took exception to the government not conducting an all-party meeting for a second time on the issue.

Telangana TDP working president and MLA A Revant Reddy alleged the Rao government adopted a discriminatory attitude in the formation of districts and mandals.

He said the TRS government acted against the interest of adivasis and other social groups.

(With Agency inputs)