Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami announced his decision at a Tamil Nadu legislative assembly earlier this month to carve the Kallakurichi district out of the Villupuram district, effectively creating the 33rd district of the state.
Palaniswami cited that the "far-flung" locations of several of Kallakurichi's villages make it considerably more difficult to properly administer them under one district, with locals reportedly having to travel long distances to access government services. He noted that the idea to split the district had originally come from C V Shanmugam, a law minister and member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly hailing from the Villupuram district himself.
Earlier last year, A Prabhu, the Kallakurichi-based Member of Legislative Assembly, had shifted from the Chief Minister’s faction to that of TTV Dhinakaran, declaring he had done so due to the Tamil Nadu government's failure to create a separate district with Kallakurichi as its administrative headquarters. To add, the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had also vowed to create the separate district of Kallakurichi during her 2016 election campaign.
Both these actions also likely influenced Palaniswami’s decision last week.
As a result of the newly-formed district, a separate Indian Administrative Service officer and others will be assigned to Kallakurichi, which will most likely have four assembly constituencies and one parliamentary constituency, as per the Chief Minister’s report.
The demand for a separate district has existed in Kallakurichi for over two decades, with locals complaining of difficulties in accessing government services and the prevalence of smuggling and other crimes in the region. The areas surrounding the Kalroyan hill range of the Eastern Ghats, for instance, are rich with sandalwood trees, which are often illegally harvested due to a lack of administrative supervision in these remote areas. The decision was supported by many parties, including the ADMK and the PMK. The formation of the Kallakurichi district is the first new district in the state since 2008, when Tiruppur was formed out of Erode and Coimbatore.
See more from the Hindustan Times here and the New Indian Express here.
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