The reorganisation of Visakhapatnam, which was one of the largest districts in the country, into three — Visakhapatnam, Anakapalle and Alluri Seetharama Raju (ASR) districts — is being welcomed by a majority of the people, though there are some dissenting voices.
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The avowed objective of the State government in creating more number of districts is to ensure administrative decentralisation. With the rejig, Visakhapatnam has now become the smallest district in Andhra Pradesh with only the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) area and some parts of Bheemunipatnam coming under it. Interestingly, GVMC area also comprises some wards in Anakapalle, which is now a separate district. This has given rise to the speculation that Visakhapatnam city will be developed on the lines of Greater Hyderabad, which extends over different districts in Telangana.
Though there were some initial concerns on the inclusion of Pendurthi and two other mandals of Visakhapatnam district, which are close to the city, in Anakapalle district, they subsided, by and large, after Pendurthi was retained in Visakhapatnam district.
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Initially, there was a talk that the people of Narsipatnam were against the merger of the revenue division in Anakapalle district. Their contention was that Narsipatnam had been a Revenue Division for about a century and had various government offices and government land and was hence eligible to become the district headquarters.
Narsipatnam MLA Petla Uma Sankar Ganesh did make an effort to convince the Chief Minister by bringing out a booklet on the history of Narsipatnam and the facilities available in the town for location of the district headquarters, but it failed to cut much ice.
Anakapalle has better connectivity and is more accessible to people of most mandals in the district, while Narsipatnam is the ‘gateway’ to the Agency (tribal) areas of the erstwhile Visakhapatnam district. Tourists, who visit Lammasingi (also known as Lambasingi) in droves between November and January, put up at hotels in Narsipatnam town due to lack of accommodation in Lambasingi.
Tribal villages
“The tribal revenue villages of Madugula, Cheedikada, Ravikamatham, Rolugunta, Kotauratla, Nathavaram and Golugonda should be included in ASR district as the tribal people living in these non-scheduled villages have been fighting for the past several years for their inclusion in the 5th Schedule of the Constitution. Their inclusion in ASR district will enable them to get all the rights as STs,” says Girijan Sangham leader K. Govinda Rao.