Political parties were unanimous in welcoming the decision of the State Government to reorganise the districts at an all-party meeting presided by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao held on Saturday.
They, however, expressed reservation over the process followed by the government so far and wanted it to come out with the guidelines for the division of the administrative units along with the issuance of draft notification. They hoped that their concerns and suggestions would be considered.
All the parties suggested to the government to take population, geographical considerations and socio-economic conditions of people into consideration while finalising new districts and cautioned against giving into political exigencies. They also asked the government to keep in mind Article 371 (D), Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, Act 1 of 1970 and others while issuing draft of proposals.
Two representatives each of Congress, MIM, BJP, TDP, CPI, CPI (M) and TRS attended the meeting that went on for over two hours and aired their views. The meeting was also attended by members of the Cabinet Sub-Committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Md. Mahamood Ali which took up preparatory work.
Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, Chief Commissioner of Land Administration J. Raymond Peter and Special Chief Secretary K. Pradeep Chandra were present.
Speaking after the meeting M. Bhatti Vikramarka and Md. Ali Shabbir of Congress said they had suggested the government to publicise guidelines based on which the district were being reorganised along with draft notification. They wanted the government to take care to prevent disputes between villages and areas in the matter of irrigation, drinking water and heritage sites due to reorganisation of districts. “We will react again after issuance of draft notification”, they said.
MIM legislators Syed Aminul Hasan Jafri and Syed Ahmed Pasha Qadri said they had asked the government not to disturb the contours of old Hyderabad district stating that it would lose its identity if divided.
Representative of BJP N. Ramchander Rao said they had asked the government to institute a judicial commission, IAS officers panel and a legislators committee as was done in Gujarat while reorganising districts in the past. He questioned the rationale behind some proposals of the Cabinet Sub-Committee including merger of Shadnagar (now in Mahabubnagr) with new Shamshabad district.
Pointing out disparities in population in the districts proposed by the Cabinet panel, TDP leaders Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy and L. Ramana said they would hold district-level meeting with party workers to create awareness among people on the genuine needs of new districts. They also suggested the government to decide the number of districts based on need and not by numerology beliefs.
Chada Venkat Reddy (CPI) and Tammineni Veerabhadram (CPI-M) said they had asked the government to keep the territory of assembly constituencies in one district instead of dividing among two-three districts as was evident in the proposals of the Cabinet panel.
Opposition cautions the government against giving
into political exigencies
