New Delhi: Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday announced that Vellore district would be trifurcated to create two additional districts, Tirupattur and Ranipet.
The decision was taken for administrative reasons and was pushed by ministers, MLAs and the public, the Hindu quoted the chief minister as saying.
Since January 2019, the AIADMK-led Tamil Nadu government has created five additional districts in the state.
In July, the government had notified two new districts Chengalpattu and Tenkasi, carved out of Kancheepuram and Tirunelveli districts respectively. In January this year, the district of Kallakurichi, carved out of Villuppuram district, was created.
While bifurcation of districts is not new, this is the first time that the government has announced five new districts in the short span of eight months. After the districts have been set up, the state will have 37 districts, up from 32 in January 2019.
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According to the News Minute, the government’s move will benefit the residents of Ranipet and Tirupattur, who now don’t need to travel long distances to the district collector’s office.
“The smaller the district is, closer the administration can get to the people,” a Tamil Nadu-based IAS officer told the News Minute. “It also makes it easier for the officers to visit the remote villages in the district. When the district is small, the officers can focus more on development and in better implementation of schemes. Grievances also can be redressed faster. If it is a big district, it becomes very tough to visit places that are far away.”
PMK founder S. Ramadoss welcomed the decision, the Hindu reported, and suggested the bifurcation of the districts of Tiruvallur, Salem, Coimbatore, Madurai, Thanjavur, Tiruvannamalai, Erode, Cuddalore, Dindigul and Virudhunagar.