The Telangana government on Monday issued a notification to change the name of two districts. The Warangal Urban district will be renamed Hanamkonda and Warangal Rural district will now be called Warangal, as announced by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in June. The state government had given a month’s time to the public for submitting objections and representations over the change of names. As per the notification, Hanamkonda district will comprise Hanamkonda and Prakal revenue divisions. The district will have a total of 12 mandals. Warangal West will continue as the district headquarters of Hanamkonda district.
“Under sub-section (5) of section 3 of the Telangana District (Formation) Act, 1974 (Act No.7 of 1974), notice is hereby given to all the concerned, that the Government in the interest of better administration and development of the areas concerned proposes to form of new Districts, Revenue Divisions and Mandals in the present District of Warangal Urban and Warangal Rural Districts in the State of Telangana,” the order said.
The Chief Minister, during his visit to Warangal and Hanamkonda to participate in various programmes on June 21, had announced that the two districts will be renamed. As part of the reorganisation of districts in 2016, Warangal was divided into five districts - Warangal Urban, Warangal Rural, Jayashankar Bhupalapally, Mahabubabad, and Jangaon. At the time of formation as a separate state, Telangana had 10 districts. They were divided to create 21 new districts in 2016. Two more districts were created in 2019.
The TRS government said this was done for administrative convenience and providing welfare and development programmes to the people in an effective way. District collectors of both Warangal Urban and Rural have been asked to publish the preliminary notification in both English and Telugu to widely inform the public.
Meanwhile, the state government on Monday ordered an inquiry into the alleged corrupt practices and misconduct of several revenue officials, including officials who have now retired. As many as 34 Government Orders for each revenue employee were issued. Officials under investigation include Village Revenue Officers (VROs), Tahsildars, Revenue Divisional Officers and Registrars.