Tamil Nadu gets 33rd district with Kallakurichi as headquarters

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The chief minister said an IAS officer would be appointed as Special Officer to carry out the administrative processes involved in creating the new district.

an IAS officer would be appointed as Special Officer to carry out the administrative processes.
an IAS officer would be appointed as Special Officer to carry out the administrative processes.

Tamil Nadu will soon get its 33rd district with Kallakurichi as its headquarters. The new district will be created by bifurcating Villupuram district, one of the large districts in the State.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced this in Assembly on Tuesday while replying to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.

The chief minister said an IAS officer would be appointed as Special Officer to carry out the administrative processes involved in creating the new district.

Law Minister CV Shanmugam and some MLAs from Villupuram district thanked the CM for this announcement.

However, the move has met with some opposition from Villupuram. For instance, R Nithiyandhan, a lawyer from Thiruvennainallur in Ulundurpet Taluk of Villupuram said Thiruvennainallur is one among the most backward areas in the district.

“If this area is added to Kallakuruchi district, people here will face the same issues that had been raised by people of Kallakuruchi when they demanded a separate district headquartered in Kallakuruchi,” he said.

“Now, we are able to reach the district headquarters in less than half an hour. If this are comes under the new district, we will have to travel 70km over some two hours to reach the new headquarters at Kallakuruchi. There was no direct bus facility from Thiruvennainallur to Kallakuruchi town. So people have to waste a whole day if they wanted to visit any of the government offices in the district headquarters, including the collectorate,” he complained.

The demand of those who oppose the bifurcation of the district is that Thiruvennainallur remains within Villupuram district although Ulundurpet is likely to become part of Kallakuruchi district. All these issues were highlighted in 2014 when the demand for Kallakuruchi district was raised with the chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Meanwhile, residents of Attur, which is part of Salem district, have renewed their demand for a separate district.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / January 08th, 2019