Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday commenced a threadbare re-look into proposals for new districts which was expected to last a couple of days more but the brainstorming with senior officials led by Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma was initially launched with districts where the proposals did not face public protests.
Sources told The Hindu that the marathon deliberations for nearly seven hours on the first day were restricted to Adilabad, Mahabubnagar, Khammam and Medak where there were relatively less problems. In Mahabubnagar alone, the government was faced with the demand to make Gadwal district instead of Wanaparthy. But, sources said Mr. Rao had shut the door on demands for changes to the proposals for new districts while he was receptive to suggestions on new revenue divisions or alterations to mandals and villages.
In fact, it was stated that the online suggestions received by the government from public till September 21 mostly pertained to demands for new mandals or opposition to merger of the existing mandals with other districts.
At the conclusion of the present consultations, the Chief Minister was likely to hold a meeting of the TRS legislature party early next week to explain to MLAs the government decisions and how they were expected to convince people.
The commencement of the deliberations on Thursday marked the final consultation ahead of the commissioning of the new districts on Vijayadasami on October 10. Sources said Mr. Rao was unlikely to go into the public outcry opposing Hanamkonda as a district as he did not see merit in it because it would be the headquarters in an urban centre for a rural district. He reportedly did not see point in making Jangaon district headquarters instead of Hanamkonda as it would increase the travel time of people living in distant places.
Mr. Rao reportedly also shot down objections to making Wanaparthy district in preference to Gadwal because the latter was remotely located and closer to Kurnool and Raichur in Karnataka. People of Gadwal and Alampur would be able to travel to the district headquarters en route to Hyderabad if Wanaparthy was made district.
Sources said Mr. Rao was also not convinced by the demand for Sircilla as a district.