Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday made it clear that he was ready to take suggestions on the re-organisation Mandals and Divisions based on the people’s wishes but would not cowed down to the pressures put forth by political leader for the sake of political reasons.

• On re-organisation of districts, KCR tells TRS leaders
• “Ever since we got signals that T State will be formed, Jayashankar Sir, Vidyasagar and I had a detailed discussions on the State and how it should be developed. We held this meeting in Delhi and decided that there is need to revive all the lakes, ponds, water bodies that were built during the Kakatiya dynasty. Even the name of Mission Kakatiya was fixed then”.

Interacting with the TRS leaders from Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Rangareddy, Nizamabad and Medak districts on the re-organisation of the district issue, KCR as part of the larger administrative reforms, the state government had initiated the re-organisation. The re organisation of Mandals, Divisions should be in tune with the people's aspirations and should be advantage to the administration.

• There is no hard and fast rule that all the villages under one Revenue Division should be under one Mandal. Villages can be under different Mandals
• Konda Venkata Rangareddy had agitated for Telangana State. His native village Pedda Mangalaram is in Moinabad Mandal. It is now going to be under Shamshabad district. Hence the proposed Shamshabad district would be called Rangareddy district. There will be another district with Vikarabad as head quarters.
• There will be three categories of Mandals. There will be uniform set of administration in the mandals under the urban areas. Small mandals should have important officers.
• To join Yellareddy in the proposed Kamareddy districts, and creating Narsapur Revenue division in Medak district will be considered.
• Amangal, Madgul, Talakondapally and proposed Kadtal Mandals will be added to Shamshabad district
• Kodangal Bomraspet Mandals will be under Vikarabad district
• Samstha Narayanpur will be under Yadadri district
• Gandeed Mandal will be under Mahabubnagar district
• Dommari Pochamma mandal in Qutballpur will be called Gandi Mysamma Mandal
• Proposal for creating Komaravelli Mandal in Siddipet district will be considered
• Maddirala, Neredukomma and Mallareddygudem Mandals will be created in Nalgonda district
• Proposal for the creation of Vattipalli mandal in Andol Constituency will also be considered.

About four and half years, the chief minister said the matter on re-organisation of the districts and reviving water bodies in the region was discussed threadbare with Irrigation expert Vidyasagar Rao and TRS Ideologue Prof K Jayashankar on a scientific and rationale basis. “Ever since we got signals that T State will be formed, Jayashankar Sir, Vidyasagar and I had a detailed discussions on the State and how it should be developed.

We held this meeting in Delhi and decided that there is need to revive all the lakes, ponds, water bodies that were built during the Kakatiya dynasty. Even the name of Mission Kakatiya was fixed then. We have also decided at the meeting to re-organise the district in Telangana and hence included the matter in our election manifesto,” he explained. Recalling the Mandal system that was introduced by NT Rama Rao in the then united AP; Chandrasekhar Rao said he was one of the members of the Committee that finalised the details of the Mandal system.

“From senior bureaucrats to village level Patel and Patwaris have opposed the concept, but yet NTR went ahead with it and it became a great achievement and successful programme. Due to the Mandal set up and subsequent reservations in elections, a lot of women from the BC, SC and ST communities got a chance to come up in their political career. The re-organisation of districts also will yield good results and it will empower people,” Chandrasekhar Rao said.

The great philosophy behind re-organisation of the districts was to remove poverty in the State. “Irrigation projects, Mission Kakatiya and Bhagiratha programme need heavy investments in the next four years, then there would be not much money needed for further investments. Telangana State’s budget will also be surplus then. The only programme left will be eradication of poverty. If the districts are smaller, every family’s needs can be addressed.

On an average in each district there will be about 3 to 4 lakh families. One can identify which family is under poverty and remedial measures can be taken up. Monitoring the state government’s policies and schemes will also be easy and effective. Collectors can have a better grip over the administration and people will get the government benefits without any problem or deviation

Chandrasekhar Rao also pointed out that in the past several major policy decisions were taken without involving the people’s views and hence they have become ineffective. “Our ideas, programmes should be people’s centric but not otherwise. Leaders should rise above their personal and political interests and reflect only the public opinion. We have other means to collect the public opinion and know what exactly public needs.

We have kept the draft proposals on the public domain and received suggestions and complaints. We have studied each and every observation,” he said. Stating that the new districts will start functioning from Dussera day, KCR said initially the news districts head quarters would function from temporary offices and new sites would be identified for the construction of the permanent offices. The new sites should be identified in consultation with the people’s representatives, the chief minister said.