A renewed attempt towards strengthening Ranga Reddy district’s revenue administration was made when a proposal was sent to the government towards creation of new revenue mandals on Wednesday.
An exhaustive meeting of the Revenue officials with Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy on the day reportedly focussed on further division of the urban and semi-urban mandals of the district for administrative convenience.
The new plan reportedly proposed 12 new mandals in total, 10 to be carved out of the existing urban mandals, and two by dividing the semi-urban mandals into Rural and Urban.
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The newly proposed urban mandals are Meerpet/Badangpet, Abdullapurmet, Jawaharnagar, Dommarpochampally, Alwal, Kukatpally, Madhapur/Kondapur, Narsingi, Pedda Shapur, and Kapra, while it is reliably learnt that Tandur and Vikarabad are the semi-urban mandals proposed to be divided.
Exponential growth, administration woes
The division of existing mandals has been a long pending proposal in view of the exponential growth that the district has been witnessing due to fast-paced urbanisation.
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Population has grown manifold, and so has the burden of work load on the officials. Due to vast areas being under fewer officials, the revenue management has become diffuse, hence eyewash.
Further, court disputes have grown in number, rendering it difficult for officials to prepare foolproof cases. Protection of government lands has become an impossible task, providing an excuse for errant officials.
The phenomenal increase in land value and unlimited authority vested in revenue officials has made the district a fertile breeding ground for corruption.
Six years in the making
The proposal for further division of mandals and revenue divisions was first mooted nearly six years ago, by the then District Collector L. Premachandra Reddy, who had sent a detailed report to the government, with comparative analysis of the revenue staffing and the workload.
Over the years, gap between all the comparative figures has only widened further, while the staffing has remained more or less the same.
Law in order
Comparing the Revenue administration with the Police department, the report pointed out that a separate Cyberabad Police Commissionerate was created for the urban mandals with due staffing, while on the Revenue front, nothing of that sort had been done.
“During the recent Revenue meets, the officials were literally begging the Revenue Minister for increased staff. While the Minister asserted that Citizen’s Charter would be invoked for completion of works within stipulated time frame, it remains an unacknowledged fact that with the existing staff, it cannot be implemented,” said a highly placed official from the district administration.
Already proposals have been sent to the government for creation of new revenue divisions. According to the proposals, the existing division of Ranga Reddy East will be renamed as Saroornagar division, while a new division Malkajgiri will be carved out of the former. Another division Rajendranagar will be carved out of the existing Chevella, by adding four urban mandals. The Vikarabad division will remain, but with a few mandals shifted to Chevella.