Reorganised districts to guide Census and future delimitation in Andhra Pradesh

The newly proposed district reorganisation in Andhra Pradesh will serve as the basis for Census units in the State. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has approved the recommendations submitted by the Group of Ministers on district restructuring on November 25.

The proposal will now go before the State Cabinet, after which a draft Gazette notification will be issued seeking public objections or suggestions for 30 days, before the final Gazette is published. It will then be sent to the Union Home Ministry for approval ahead of the national Census scheduled next year.

Under the proposal, the State will have 29 districts, up from the current 26, with the creation of Polavaram, Markapuram and Madanapalle districts. These new districts, along with revised revenue divisions and mandal boundaries, will be treated as Census units during enumeration.

At the time of the 2011 Census, the present Andhra Pradesh comprised 13 districts following the bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh, which originally had 23. Ten districts became part of Telangana after the 2014 division. The previous YSRCP government reorganised the 13 districts into 26, and the present NDA government now proposes expanding them to 29.

Officials said the restructuring also includes new revenue divisions and adjustments to mandal boundaries, based on factors such as distance from administrative headquarters and people’s affinity to particular regions. The exercise assumes added significance because the delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies, scheduled after the 2026 Census, will be shaped by the new administrative boundaries.

Nadendla Manohar, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and a member of the GoM, told The Hindu that the reorganisation was carried out diligently, keeping in view the aspirations and practical concerns of people in the affected areas. The objective is improving administrative efficiency and extending services more effectively through new units. He said the government also sought to rectify what it considers errors committed by the previous YSRCP regime. These new units will be treated as Census units.

B. C. Janardhan Reddy, Minister for Roads and Buildings and also a GoM member, said the government had taken up the task as promised during the general elections. He said the present exercise aims to correct the mistakes made by the previous government in district formation.