Will Jagan’s Ugadi deadline for carving out new districts work?

Is AP CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s plan to form 13 new districts and alter the geography and politics of the state practical? While the idea behind the whole exercise is aimed to completely decimate the already-battered TDP, there are several hitches and glitches that could mar YS Jagan’s ambitious plan. There are many bottlenecks in the plan that could play spoilsport.

Firstly, let’s look at neighbouring Telangana which took up this exercise a good six years ago. Till now, there is no infrastructure in the newly-carved out districts. In some cases, the collectorate buildings are still under construction. There is paucity of civil servants and repeated requests to the Central Government have fallen on deaf ears. Several officers are functioning from rented premises. With the kind of fund crunch that AP is facing, it would take years for the new buildings to materialize.

Secondly, demands for carving out more districts are sprouting from everywhere. In places like, Narsapur and Narsipatnam, agitations have already begun. There is a demand for ANR district now. Several litigants are sure to take the legal routes and this could further delay the formation of the new districts. Issues like teachers’ local status, inter-district transfers too are like to become a big issue.

Sources say that the final notification for the formation of districts may not come anytime soon and the proposed formation of districts by Ugadi is a pipedream. Sources say that there are going to be several hurdles on the way to the formation of the new districts.