While it was business as usual on Thursday at the Collectorate in the residual Adilabad district, the three new entities — Kumram Bheem (Asifabad), Mancherial, and Nirmal districts, which came into being three days ago — seem to be suffering birth pangs.
Adilabad Collectorate was besieged by about 200 Adivasis from Mallapur and nearby villages in Indervelli mandal as part of their protest in being included in the newly-formed Sirikonda mandal, but the general public stayed away from the other three administrative nerve centres on the first day of their functioning.
The new Kumram Bheem district Collectorate building at Asifabad wore a desolate look in the absence of Collector Champa Lal, who was on leave. Also, not all employees who were posted here reported to duty.
“It is because we are conceptually just 10 days old and we are struggling to make do with the existing staff,” said Asifabad Sub-Collector Adwait Kumar Singh, explaining the reason for difficulty in augmentation of employee strength. “We are perhaps the worst case of an understaffed administrative set up.” The Collectors of Mancherial and Nirmal, R.V. Karnan and Ilambarithi, got down to business despite staff crunch and other difficulties. While Mr. Karnan visited Mancherial hospital to take stock of the situation, Mr. Ilambarithi chaired a review meeting with his officials which was also attended by Housing Minister A. Indrakaran Reddy.
