Opposition parties in Telangana State are ‘seeing’ a political design in the State government’s move to reorganise districts. The parties are not only unanimous in their opinion that the fragmentation of the existing districts is unscientific, but also point out that it will eventually result in weakening them at the grass-root level.
“This is something like the British policy of divide and rule,” quipped Adilabad District Congress Committee working president Naresh Jadhav.
“It will mean more work for us as district units become smaller and numerous, and their respective area of operation shrinks,” he pointed out of the impending difficulty for his party as it has to be divided into four units corresponding with the number of districts which will emerge after the reorganisation of the Adilabad district.
The Opposition parties are waiting for the new districts to be formed before they designate their own units in each of the district. “You do not know how many districts will finally emerge, thanks to the whimsical attitude of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao,” Mr. Jadhav remarked.
“This is the plan of the ruling TRS to weaken us by dividing the existing party units,” asserted Adilabad west district TDP unit president Lolam Shamsunder.
“The Congress and TDP are targeted,” he accused.
“There is no political agenda in the move,” countered TRS west district unit president Loka Bhuma Reddy, denying any motive behind the decision to divide districts. “At the political level also, smaller units are preferable as it will be easier for the leaders concerned to go about their duties,” he opined.
“Yes, it will impact us and we need to put in extra hard work to strengthen our party across the district. The areas where we are weak get exposed due to reorganisation of our party in Adilabad,” conceded the CPI (Marxist) Adilabad unit secretary, Bandi Dattatri.
The issue of administrative concern given as a reason by the government for the massive exercise was also debunked by the political parties.
“If the Tahsildar and Mandal Parishad Development Officers work properly, where is the need for a citizen to approach the Collector’s office even if it is on the moon,” a sarcastic Mr. Dattatri pointed out as he tried to lay bare the vagueness of the government’s reasoning.
