After 2 years of its formation, the government of
Telangana has decided to create more districts. This is a major administrative revamp. In this article we are going to see what are the advantages and
disadvantages of creating new districts.
Introduction
Telangana is the 29th state of
India. It was carved out of Andhra Pradesh and it was given a separate
statehood on 2 June 2014. As of now both the
states have the same capital Hyderabad. It’s a Telugu-speaking region of south India. Telangana is bordered by the states of Maharashtra to the north and north west, Chhattisgarh to the north, Karnataka to the west, and Andhra Pradesh to the east and south. As per the
2011 census, Telangana has a population of 35 million or 3.5 crore making it
the 12th largest state in India.
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| Telangana State |
How many districts does Telangana have?
Currently Telangana has 10 districts they are - Adilabad,
Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Ranga
Reddy and Warangal. But the Plan of the state government is to reorganize the
state into 27 districts that is to create 17 more districts.
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| Districts of Telangana |
Is there any provision to create more districts?
Yes there is, if you look at the government
document “ANDHRA PRADESH DISTRICTS (FORMATION) ACT, 1974”. When Telangana was
carved out of Andhra Pradesh, they adopted all the legislations of Andhra Pradesh. With
that ANDHRA PRADESH DISTRICTS (FORMATION) ACT, 1974
became Telangana Districts (Formation) Act, 1974. In this
document, section 3 clearly mentions Division of State into
districts, formation of new districts and alteration of areas. So yes, there is
provision to create more districts.
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| ANDHRA PRADESH DISTRICTS (FORMATION) ACT, 1974 |
Now, is it common to create new districts?
Again yes, Sometimes districts
are split repeatedly. For example, Kurung Kumey district in Arunachal Pradesh
was created from Lower Subansiri district in April 2001. But, in February 2015,
another district (Kra Daadi) was created from Kurung Kumey. Similarly, Sonitpur
district was formed in 1983 when it was split from Darrang district. Then, on 15th
August 2015, Sonitpur district was again divided to form Biswanath
district. The reorganization of districts is within the purview of the
state and has nothing to do with the central government. Once the state
bifurcates a district, the Centre has to agree to the same boundaries.
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| Biswanath district in Arunachal Pradesh |
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| Kurung Kumey district in
Arunachal Pradesh |
Who takes the decision?
This kind of decision is taken in a state
Cabinet meeting chaired by the state Chief Minister. So it is the state govt
that decided when and how the to create more districts.
Who is doing all the planning work?
The
District Collectors of the rank of IAS (Indian Administrative Service) submit detailed proposals on new districts to the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) and
then the report is sent to the Chief Secretary of the state. After that consultations will be held with
people's representatives such as MLAs, MLCs, MPs, basically the
politicians. They will hold another conference with the collectors and followed
by an all-party meeting later.
Why are districts bifurcated, what are the
advantages?
There are some reasons behind splitting
districts in India. We will try to reason out the arguments.
Reason no.1 - For the ease of administration – In
India, the per capita availability of bureaucrats, judges, police and
doctors is one of the lowest in the world and that leads to inefficient
administration. The more district means more
district HQ and more administrative resources. Now having more district HQ will
reduce the distance between the district headquarters and remote areas. Which
helps in monitoring govt schemes and also maintaining law and order. With a
smaller jurisdiction, delivery of services will be on time. People will no
longer have to travel long distances to visit District HQ.
Reason no.2 – Population
density – As per the 2011 census, India’s population density which is the
number of people living in a per square km of land in 382. But this figure is
taken at an average. You see population density is not the same at every place,
it varies. Some places have a very low pop. Density of 13 people / sq km i am
talking about Arunachal Pradesh, and then we have places with high density of
pop. Which is Delhi with 9340 people / sq km. So this particular reason is not
a very strong reason behind splitting a district because by splitting we are
not going to move people, we are just going to segregate population based on
district. Though it is not important but it’s worth knowing.
And the reason no.3 is –
Urbanization. So the meaning of urbanization is a population shift from rural
to urban areas. And there has been a gradual increase in the people living in
urban areas. Population overburdening
at any particular place is often
associated with depletion of resources, hence to tackle this problem splitting
districts and empowering the district with its functions, revenue, powers and
people will give rise to rapid economic development. And if you have resources
available around you why would you bother relocating to another place.
And the
reason no.4 is purely political. Cmon, we have to agree nothing gets past
without a political agenda. Now The
reorganization of districts in Telangana state could lead to exclusive zones
for the TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi). TRS is the ruling government in Telangana. In creating new
districts, they have an opportunity to edge out the opposition in some
districts. So every district has constituencies, again it can vary, some may
have more some have less. And from every constituency a citizen gets to vote
for an MLA (Memeber of Legislative Assembly) and an MP (Member of Parliament). Always remember MLAs choose CM (Chief Minister) and MPs
choose PM (Prime Minister). Well for now we are just concerned about state so let’s stick to
MLAs choose CM argument. So the more districts will have more constituencies
which means more MLAs and MPs, that’s how a ruling government has an edge over
the oppositions.
Now let’s quickly understand
the disadvantages of bifurcating a district. Though it is nothing compared to
the benefits that it will do to the people and the country, but anyhow it’s
worth knowing.
1. 1. There will be a huge financial burden - to finance the creation of many institutions
in the new districts. We are talking about office spaces for various
departments, infrastructure, design, maintenance, manpower, equipment,
hardware, software, communications etc.. the list is huge, The government has to incur huge expenditure
for this development.
2. 2. There will be a shortage of administrative officers - when the new districts will be ready to
function the state will need around 50 IAS and IPS officers. That is just an approximate figure. Selection
and training of such a huge number of All India Service (AIS) officers will not
be possible for the central government in the short period of six months. Even
if the Centre allocates young officers immediately to Telangana cadre, the
officers should get promotion to handle a district. You cannot just let a
junior officer take charge of the entire district, that will create imbalance
among civil servants in terms of seniority.
3. 3. Drafting new policies - With the creation of new districts, the state govt
will have to draft more policies because every district is different in terms
of size, population and resources. Therefore it will take good amount of time
to draft policy documents and bring them to action. Now it is reasonable to suspect that most of the policies will be a direct copy
paste of the existing ones, and with time there will be modifications. But that
will come at a cost of delay in public service delivery.
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