CREATION OF ADDITIONAL DISTRICTS HAS HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE : Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

(Recovered and Reloaded)

CREATION OF ADDITIONAL DISTRICTS

HAS HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE

Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao

Metro India (08-05-2016)

            Salar Jung known to be a great reformer of Nizam days was instrumental in creation of districts in 1865 while he was serving as Prime Minister as part of his “Jilla Band” scheme. Then Hyderabad state was divided into 16 districts and laid foundation to the present day district administration and they have come to stay. Subsequently, eight districts with Telugu speaking people were carved out as part of present day Telangana though it was not named like that then. Later in 1953 Khammam which was part of Warangal district was separated and made a district. Again in 1979 Ranga Reddy district was created with few Talukas that were part of Hyderabad district. Since then during the last three and half decade’s administration in Telangana area is done through these ten districts only. 

            Against this background as promised in the 2014 election manifesto Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao announce the formation of 14 or 15 more districts making the total number as 24 or 25. As announced by CM formation of Telangana is an historical event and now the formation of additional Districts and Mandals would also be a historical event. 

          In India the district has always been the pivot of the structure of administration. With the acceptance of a Welfare State as the objective the emphasis in district administration has come to be placed overwhelmingly on development activities. District as the basic unit of field administration has been in existence through the ages. Independence and adoption of welfare state necessitated a complete reorientation of the concept of District Administration including its size. The District administration is headed by the Collector and District Magistrate drawn from IAS and is responsible among others for the general control and direction of the police which is headed by the Superintendent of Police. Basically, the DC has three major functions namely revenue, magisterial and developmental. A district with geographically bigger area and with population over and above 15 Lakhs, it may not be possible for the Collector to concentrate more on certain areas and subjects. In Telangana where the Government initiated number of programs like Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha, two bed room houses, Grama Jyoti, Harita Haram, Land Purchase and allotment to Dalits, variety of welfare measures and so on, it requires a smaller unit as district compared to the present size.

Telangana State Government has constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary and the basic work of collection of data, specific features, etc. for creation of new districts in addition to the present 10 is in the process. Meanwhile CM announced that there would be 24 or 25 districts in the state. It is likely that on an average each district will have a population of 15 lakhs as per 2011 census.

In this context it is worth knowing few details on this subject in practice all over the country. As per the current data there are 681 districts in all the 29 states and no uniform guidelines or criteria seems to have been followed in dividing a particular state in to number of districts for administrative convenience. Not only regarding number of districts but also in case of number of Lok Sabha or Assembly segments there seems to be no criteria. There is gross inconsistency in the ratio between population, number of districts, number of Lok Sabha and Assembly segments.

Population of states varies between 20 Crores of Uttar Pradesh (16.49% of Country’s) to mere 6 lakhs of Sikkim (0.05% of Country’s) as well as 80 Lok Sabha members from UP to just one from Sikkim. Surprisingly for 80 MPs of UP there are 404 Assembly Segments where as for just one MP there are 32 Assembly segments in Sikkim. What has been the criterion is not known. Similarly ratio between Lok Sabha and Assembly segments in different states vary from 1:5 (UP) to 1:60 (Nagaland). While there are 404 Assembly segments for 80 Lok Sabha segments in UP for all the North East States put together the Assembly segments are as many as 412 as against a mere 13 Lok Sabha segments. How is this justified is also not known. Other than North East States the ratio varies from 1:5 in UP to 1:14 in Uttara Khand and Jammu & Kashmir. Majority of states the ratio between Lok Sabha and Assembly segments is 1:7. Whether the formation of districts or segmentation of Lok Sabha and Assembly has any uniform criterion and real representative is disputable. 

Coming to number of districts in different states compared to Telangana, Himachal Pradesh with a population of 68 Lakhs has 12 districts and sends 4 MPs and 68 MLAs. Uttara Khand has one Crore population in 13 districts with 5 MPs and 70 MLAS. Jammu & Kashmir has 1.25 Crores population, 22 districts, 6 MPs and 89 MLAs. Haryana has 2.53 Crores population, 21 districts, 10 MPs and 90 MLAs. Chhattisgarh has 2.55 Crore population, 27 districts, 11 MPs and 91 MLAs. Punjab has 2.77 Crore population 22 districts, 13 MPs and 117 MLAs. Assam has 3.12 Crore population, 32 districts, 14 MPs and 126 MLAs. Jharkhand has 3.29 Crore population 24 districts, 14 MPs and 81 MLAs. Against this even though Telangana State has 3.53 Crore population it has only just 10 districts, 17 MPs and 119 MLAs. Number of districts and number of Lok Sabha and Assembly segments are lesser when compared to the 8 states listed above. Even smaller states like Arunachal Pradesh which has just 14 Lakhs population has as many as 19 districts, Nagaland 11 with 20 Lakhs population and Meghalaya has 11 districts with 29 Lakhs population.

As far as other states are concerned Madhya Pradesh has 51 districts against 28 Lok Sabha segments, Odisha has 30 districts against 21 Lok Sabha segments, Rajasthan has 33 districts for 25 Lok Sabha segments, Karnataka has 30 districts for 28 Lok Sabha segments, Gujarat has 33 districts for 26 Lok Sabha segments. UP with 75 districts for 80 Lok Sabha segments and Bihar with 38 districts for 40 Lok Sabha segments have almost equal number of districts and Lok Sabha segments. However Maharashtra with 36 districts for 48 Lok Sabha segments, West Bengal 20 districts for 42 Lok Sabha segments, Tamil Nadu with 32 districts for 39 Lok Sabha segments, Andhra Pradesh with 13 districts for 25 Lok Sabha segments, Kerala with 14 districts for 20 Lok Sabha segments and Telangana with 10 districts for 17 Lok Sabha segments are the six states with lesser districts un-matching with Lok Sabha segments and population.

It is not only the number of districts but also that of Lok Sabha and Assembly segments needs to be enhanced to a reasonable level in Telangana. When this is done and when number of districts is increased in Telangana then one more election promise would be fulfilled. End