13 new districts part of decentralisation, says Andhra CM Jagan Reddy

The new districts are Parvathipuram Manyam, Alluri Seetharamaraju, Anakapalli, Kakinada, Konaseema, Eluru, NTR, Palanadu, Bapatla, Nandyala, Sri Satya Sai, Annamayya and Tirupati, which have now taken the total number of districts in the state to 26.

Drawing a comparison with the other states in the country, he stated that even smaller states like Arunachal Pradesh have 25 districts for better administration and of all the 727 districts in the country, Andhra Pradesh is the only state with a high average of 38.15 lakh people in each district. With the creation of 13 more districts, the average population density has come down to 19.07 lakh, he said.

Recalling the 2019 elections, he stated that the Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) promised to create a parliamentary constituency in each district and going by the population density the tribal area had to be split into two districts.

The CM said that his government has taken into account TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s request and accorded the revenue division status to Kuppam from where Naidu is an MLA. Chandrababu Naidu, who was the chief minister for 14 years, failed to set up Kuppam as a revenue division but we made it, he said.

The CM said that the role and scope of collectors have widened from merely collecting revenue to heading the delivery mechanism of welfare schemes and outreach to people, and now the focus of all the 26 district collectors should be on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The responsibilities of the collectors have gone beyond Law and Order and Revenue, with the addition of Excise, Registration, Social Welfare, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Primary Education, Land Administration, Civil Supplies, Disaster Management, along with election management, among others. The reforms are aimed at bringing the administration closer to the people.

The performance of the collectors would also be assessed on SDGs and SOPs for achieving the goals, which were also released on Monday. The formation of new districts, increasing the sub-divisions, and all such steps are being taken for growth in SDG, he said adding that the performance ratings would be given based on these goals.

He highlighted that collectors, superintendents of police (SPs), and other district officials would be working on the same premises with integrated buildings to cut the travel time of the citizens. The chief minister also released the District Handbook of Statistics, which contains comprehensive information on the districts created by the Planning Department.