Karnataka carves out two more districts

Karnataka Government has decided to create two more districts of Ramanagaram and Chikkaballapur, taking the total number of districts in the State to 29.

Briefing reporters in Bangalore, Karnataka’s Home Minister M P Prakash said the State Cabinet has decided to carve out Ramanagaram district from the existing Bangalore rural district and Chikkaballapur from the existing Kolar district.

The carving out of Ramanagaram from Bangalore Rural district marks the third bifurcation of the erstwhile Bangalore district. During 1985, the then Ramakrishna Hegde Government had split Bangalore district into Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural for the sake of administrative convenience.

Twenty two years later, Bangalore Rural district has been divided again by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who incidentally represents Ramanagaram in the State Assembly.

While Ramanagaram district will comprise four taluks of Magadi, Channapatna, Kanakapura and Ramanagaram, Chikkaballapur district will comprise Gauribidanur, Bagepalli, Chintamani, Gudibande, Siddlaghatta and Chikkaballapur taluks.

Claiming that the “historic” decision of the Government to carve out new districts from the existing ones would facilitate “better administration”, Prakash said Ramanagaram district and Chikkaballapur district will come into existence from August 15.

However, the new districts are pending final approval from the Justice Kuldip Singh Commission on Delimitation. “Since the Commission has already completed its work on delimitation of constituencies and is expected to release the final report in a few days, there should not be any problem with regard to the creation of the new districts”, Prakash said.

Answering queries, Prakash said the Government had already earmarked Rs 702 million for creating infrastructure facilities like establishing new offices and purchase of vehicles for officials posted to the new districts.