The State will have two more new districts — Mulug and Narayanpet — taking the total to 33 along with several other lower-level administrative units such as revenue divisions and mandals, as promised by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao during the recent elections to the Assembly.
Directions to the effect were given by the Chief Minister to Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) Rajeshwar Tiwari at a review meeting held here on Sunday. The Chief Minister told the official to initiate the process for carving out the two new districts in tune with his electoral promise.
Apart from the two new districts, Korutla will be made a new revenue division and Narayanraopet in Siddipet, Gattuppal in Nalgonda, Mallampally in Bhupalapally, Chanduru and Mosra in Kamareddy and Inugurthy in Mahabubabad districts will be made new mandals. Further, Gundala mandal in Jangoan district will be merged into Yadadri-Bhuvangiri district.
Asking the officials to shift their focus to development of villages, the Chief Minister told them to appoint village secretaries every gram panchayat. The overall picture of villages should be changed for better with the effective implementation of the new Panchayat Raj Act, he said. Programmes pertaining to improving greenery and sanitation in villages should be stepped up immediately after the conduct of gram panchayat elections, he suggested.
Village secretaries
As part of having village secretary for every gram panchayat, the Chief Minister directed the officials to complete the process of recruitment of 9,355 village secretaries so that all the 12,751 gram panchayats have secretaries. With the appointment of new village secretaries every village would have a village level officer who would be made responsible for all-round development of the villages.
To create awareness on the development model being thought out by the government, a conclave of village (panchayat) secretaries MPDOs, EOs-PRD, DPOs, DLPOs and others would be convened at L.B. Stadium here on December 27, where the Chief Minister will give inaugural address and make suggestions on the action plan for the development of villages, according to officials.
On fulfilling the promise of giving social security pensions to all those who completed 57 years of age, the Chief Minister asked Chief secretary S.K. Joshi to draft modalities for it and decide on the process for identifying eligible persons. Once the details of beneficiaries were worked out and the number was decided, adequate provision would be made in the 2019-20 budget and payment of pension would begin effectively from April 1, next.
Bathukamma sarees
The distribution of Bathukamma sarees before Dasara festival, which was halted due to the instructions of the Election Commission, would be taken up from December 19. The Chief Minister noted that although the sarees were kept ready for distribution ahead of the festival it was deferred following the complaint made by Congress party. The Chief Minister also instructed the officials concerned to take up distribution of clothes on the occasion of Christmas.
It was also decided at the meeting that distribution of Kalyana Laxmi/Shadi Mubarak benefit cheques would be done at the hands of legislators concerned, as was being practised before the elections.
