Explained: Why are Tamil Nadu’s districts being split?

When a new district is created, the government has to invest in infrastructure to set up the District Collectorate Building, the office of the Superintendent of Police and allied departments.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami during the Independence Day celebrations at Fort St. George on Thursday.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced that Vellore district would be trifurcated with two new districts being created with Ranipet and Tirupattur as headquarters. From January this year, he has been announcing one plan after another to bifurcate / trifurcate larger districts. In January he announced that Villupuram district would be bifurcated and a new district with Kallakurichi as headquarters would be created. He followed this up by announcing last month the decision to create Chengalpattu district – carved out of Kancheepuram and Tenkasi district by bifurcating Tirunelveli.

Why split?

Tamil Nadu presently has 32 districts. Since some of the existing districts are large in size, the government has received representations from people to create new districts so that they could have better access to government schemes. When new district headquarters is set up, people need not travel a longer distance to get their grievances redressed. The Revenue Department would redraw the boundaries of the districts. Development would also be faster as funds would devolve to local bodies from the district headquarters in a targeted manner.

Has this happened in the past?

Yes. Ariyalur, Tiruppur and Tiruvarur are among the newer districts that were created in the past decade or so. However, this is the first time that the plan to create five new districts has been announced in a short span of under eight months. There is also a demand to create a new district headquarters in Mayiladuthurai by bifurcating Nagapattinam district. Last month traders in Mayiladuthurai downed shutters for three days demanding creation of a new district. The government is yet to act on the demand.

What are the costs involved?

When a new district is created, the government has to invest in infrastructure to set up the District Collectorate Building, the office of the Superintendent of Police and allied departments. This would also mean that the government has to appoint new Collectors and SPs and providing them vast accommodations.