The number of districts in Andhra Pradesh will double to 26 from today with the addition of 13 new districts. A gazette notification issued by the state government said that all the new districts would come into being from April 4 (Monday).

“The Chief Minister will launch district portals and handbooks to make it possible for people to engage on this momentous day,” the Chief Minister’s office said in a statement.

“Chief Minister Jagan has directed officials to streamline office allotment procedure, stating that officers will be required to assume possession of the district office on April 4,” it said.

Soon after notification was issued on Sunday, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress government reshuffled IAS and IPS officers and appointed collectors and Superintendents of Police to the newly-created districts.

IAS officer Vir Vikram Yadav was appointed the new chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Puri. Yadav, a 1996-batch IAS officer, held the post of principal secretary of the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department in his last assignment. He replaced Krishan Kumar, a 2002-batch IAS officer, who was relieved by the Odisha government after the Centre appointed him as Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce.

The concept of urban police districts has been abandoned with the formation of new districts. The state will now have 24 district units for police administration in addition to two police commissionerates — Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. All the 24 district units will be headed by SP rank officers. 

The revenue divisions, too, have been increased to 72 from 51 with the creation of 21 new divisions. Each new district will have at least one revenue division. 

Reddy, during the poll campaign for the 2019 Assembly elections, promised that his party, if voted to power, would make every Lok Sabha constituency as a district. The state has 25 Lok Sabha seats. One district was additionally created carving out the tribal areas in East Godavari and Visakhapatnam.

The Alluri Sitarama Raju district was carved out from West Godavari and Vishakhapatnam by the state government in a bid to separate the tribal areas. The state government, which issued a draft notification in January this year, received more than 17,000 suggestions and objections. The final notification was issued after making minor changes. Some changes include renaming Sri Balaji district as Tirupati with Tirupati city as its headquarters. 

The Undi mandal, where the Dwarka Tirumala temple is situated in West Godavari, was proposed to be merged with East Godavari but was retained in West Godavari after opposition from various quarters.