Siddipet’s future as a district in doubt amid Congress demerger plans

The Congress government’s district demerger plans have cast doubt over Siddipet’s future as a district. With mandals set to be merged back into Karimnagar and Jangaon, BRS accuses Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of targeting its leaders and vows to resist

Siddipet: With Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar openly announcing that Husnabad, Koheda and Akkannapet mandals, which were earlier part of Siddipet district, would be merged back into Karimnagar, the very existence of Siddipet district has now come under a cloud.

With the Congress government reportedly planning the demerger of Komuravelly, Cheriyal, Dhoolmitta and Maddur mandals, which were part of Jangaon constituency, and Bejjanki mandal, which falls under Manakondur constituency, the number of mandals in the district will be reduced to 18 from the present 26. Siddipet district, a four-decade-old aspiration of the people, was created by the BRS government in 2016 by merging parts of the erstwhile Karimnagar and Warangal districts.

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As these areas were geographically closer to Siddipet, officials had merged them with the district. For instance, Komuravelly is located just 25 km from Siddipet, while the temple town is more than 100 km away from Warangal.

Calling it an attempt to dissolve Siddipet district, the BRS accused Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy of conspiring against former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and former Minister T Harish Rao by erasing their footprints. The BRS said it would launch a movement to protect the integrity of Siddipet district.

As Siddipet is located 150 km away from its former headquarters at Sangareddy, people from the region had submitted representations to former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NT Rama Rao more than four decades ago, demanding the creation of a separate district. The BRS accused the Congress government of again trying to merge Siddipet with Sangareddy, a move it said would attract strong opposition from all quarters.