Reorganisation of Andhra Pradesh districts likely to be delayed

The proposed reorganisation of districts in Andhra Pradesh may not happen by the March 31 deadline due to a variety of reasons.

A high-level official committee headed by the Chief Secretary, set up for the purpose, could not yet trash out various contentious issues, particularly that related to drawing the borders of the new districts, officials said.

Besides, creation of required infrastructure like new office buildings for the newly carved out districts is also seen as a handful task, given the precarious financial position of the state.

In respect of staffing, the panel is said to have noted that no new posts need to be created as the existing ranks could be distributed and re-assigned.

"The major problem is with regard to demarcation of the boundaries as there are several geographical disparities. Distribution of resources is also proving ticklish," a top official involved in the exercise said.

The state currently has 13 districts.

On the eve of the 2019 general elections, the YSR Congress promised to carve out new districts with each Lok Sabha constituency as the base, thus taking the number to 25.

However, the government later decided to split Araku parliamentary constituency, spread over four districts now, into two new tribal districts, thereby increasing the overall number to 26.

The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government said creation of new districts was a measure aimed at ensuring ease of administration and accessibility to people asthe present districts are large in size and have become "unwieldy to administer".

The high-level committee headed by the Chief Secretary has held several rounds of deliberations so far but could not come to a conclusive decision on the districts reorganisation exercise.

The committee was said to have decided to leave the ultimate decision to the political bosses, given the many contentious issues involved, including the conflicting demands from various parties.

Now that the ruling political dispensation has been completely engaged in the elections, to panchayat raj institutions and urban local bodies, the districts reorganisation process has been kept on the back-burner, n official source told PTI.

"It will happen but will take more time," a top bureaucrat said.