In-charge secretaries may monitor development in new districts

This is to help some non-cadre officers promoted to District Collectors; each Secretary is likely to be given the responsibility of a few districts

The Telangana government may not incur additional capital expenditure immediately in the wake of reorganisation of districts, but there will certainly be increase in revenue expenditure due to creation of 21 more districts, 25 revenue divisions and 125 mandals.

The government is yet to make an assessment on the requirement of new buildings and their construction in the new districts and the process is bound to take time. However, with increase in the number of districts, the revenue expenditure in terms of TA and DA and other establishment expenditure will go up to some extent, sources said.

The reorganisation, however, had resulted in a peculiar situation where senior IAS officers who were heading big districts like Mabahubnagar and Adilabad would now be looking after only a chunk of it as two or more districts were carved out of them. In some cases, senior Collectors were given responsibility as Commissioners in various State-level departments. Senior officials recalled that in their time, the IAS officers would get the posting of a Collector after working for at least 10 to 11 years in various posts. Now, because of increase in the number of districts and decrease in their size, direct recruits could become Collectors after putting in five to six years of service.

Some non-cadre officers who were promoted as District Collectors did request for hand-holding and it has been decided to make senior Secretaries to mentor and coordinate development programmes in some districts.

Like district in-charge Ministers, each Secretary is likely to be given the responsibility of a few districts.

The Telangana government has also decided to review the 50-year-old GO 77 that detailed the powers of Collectors, Joint Collectors and DROs and division of work between them. Similarly, the government is in favour of bringing down the strength of supervisory cadre and increasing the strength of field-level officers.

The new dispensation in the districts is a mix of experience and freshness and Collectors could easily take more load as the size of districts has come down significantly for them.

On creation of new posts, official sources said that about 3,000 posts in police and revenue departments were sanctioned, but the process of recruitment through Public Service Commission and Police Recruitment Board would at least take a couple of years.

Unlike in the past, allocation of officers is strictly on the basis of work.

For instance, the Forest Department did a thorough exercise and appointed four Divisional Forest Officers in Bhupalapally and Kothagudem districts with a large forest area and appointed none in Yadadri where there was no requirement, an official explained.