‘Creation of new districts a first step towards growth’

Districts in Tamil Nadu once covered vast areas. As a result, effective administration eluded vast sections of their population for many years. In a first, Salem district was bifurcated over five decades ago Since then, many other districts have been bifurcated or trifurcated. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who earlier announced the creation of a district with Kallakurichi as its headquarters, has followed it up by proposing the creation of two more districts with Tenkasi and Chengalpattu as their respective headquarters. Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar says the creation of a new district is the first step towards effective administration. Excerpts:

What is the objective of creating new districts?

If the area of administration is vast, it will cause delays in implementing welfare schemes and projects. The population, human settlements, commercial establishments and industries continue to grow in modern times. A taluk office that caters to the needs of 1,000 people will struggle to reach out to them if their population increases to, say, 5,000. The people will not get the benefits of the welfare schemes in time.

The purpose of delimitation of districts is ensuring that the people have easy access to the administration and enjoy the benefits of government schemes. It will make government programmes reachable to the public.

The creation of a new district lays the foundation for growth. It is the first step towards development. A new district will have a new Collectorate and will encourage employment opportunities and the creation of new commercial establishments and industries. We have created 85 taluks and 11 revenue divisions since 2015.

Has the creation of new revenue districts, taluks and divisions served the desired purpose?

You can see the results immediately and realise the benefits. That is why MLAs are demanding the creation of more and more taluks. A new taluk reduces travel time for the public. All the [present] 32 districts were created in a gradual manner.

Does the government have plans to create more districts?

We have [received] a lot of demands. The Chief Minister will take a decision at an appropriate time.

What will be the role of the special officers appointed for the newly created districts?

When a government redraws the areas of revenue administration, the opinions, grievances and contentions of the people should be heard. The special officer, in consultation with the District Collector and other officials, will seek the opinions of the people.

The government has just announced new districts, and it is for the special officers to get a map of the areas and sit down with the Collectors and other officials to incorporate the suggestions for inclusion and exclusion of taluks and revenue divisions. They will also decide the Assembly constituencies to be covered under the new districts.

How does an IAS officer view bifurcation since the creation of a new district will reduce the area of administration for a District Collector?

A new district will, in fact, support the administration and facilitate field visits by the District Collector. A District Collector can easily supervise four constituencies, and it will be difficult for him if a district has more and more constituencies. A District Collector is a District Collector, and areas do not matter.

The State government did not accede to the demand to bifurcate Vellore district and create a new one with Tirupattur as the headquarters.

Similarly, it did not pay heed to the demand to create a district with Mayiladuthurai as the headquarters. It has been alleged that this is because such bifurcation will limit the sphere of influence of your powerful party district secretaries in the region…

This is a baseless allegation. Party administration is different from revenue administration. Districts are created only based on the people’s requests.