Madanapalle hopes dashed, segment set to be made part of Annamayya district

Tirupati: The proposed Annamayya district with Rayachoti as headquarters has snowballed into a major controversy in the three mandals of the existing Chittoor district. Ignoring the sentiments of people of Madanapalle, Thamballapalle and Piler constituencies who were demanding Madanapalle district, those three segments have been included in the Annamayya district in the notification issued on Tuesday night.

It was strongly opposed by the Madanapalle Jilla Sadhana Samithi (MJSS) which launched a fresh round of agitation on Wednesday itself. Its convenor of PTM, Siva Prasad made it clear that they want only historical Madanapalle as headquarters. If the government is not willing to do so, at least the three mandals in the western part should be included in Chittoor district only. He even warned that if the government does not respond to their demand positively, they may intensify their agitation with the demand of merging Madanapalle in Karnataka.

As per the notification, the 14 Assembly constituencies in the existing Chittoor district will go into three different districts. The existing Chittoor district will have seven constituencies. However, Chandragiri Assembly segment which is under Chittoor Lok Sabha constituency has been included in Tirupati district which was named as Sri Balaji district.

On the other hand, Punganur which is part of Rajampet Lok Sabha constituency, has been included in the new Chittoor district while the remaining three Assembly segments in the western parts will be in Rajampet district named as Annamayya district with Rayachoti as headquarters.

The proposed Sri Balaji district will have seven Assembly segments.

However, Sarvepalli which is part of Tirupati Lok Sabha seat has been included in Nellore district and Chandragiri has been included in Balaji district considering their geographical convenience.

On the whole, Chittoor district will have 33 mandals, including Chittoor revenue division and the newly-proposed Palamaner revenue division, with 7,210 sq km area having a population of 19.85 lakh. Sri Balaji district will be formed with 35 mandals, including Tirupati, Naidupet and Gudur revenue divisions with an area of 9,176 sq km and 22.18 lakh population.

Annamayya district will also have three revenue divisions, Madanapalle and Rajampet along with the newly-proposed Rayachoti division. It will have 32 mandals in the area of 8459 sq km and 17.68 lakh population.

Meanwhile, with the new Sri Balaji district, Sri City will have to come out of NUDA limits as it will fall under Tirupati district only. Also, the famous SHAR will be part of this district.

Once Palamaneru revenue division is formed along with Punganur and Kuppam Assembly segments, from the biggest revenue division in the country's status, Madanapalle will become one of the smaller divisions.

The government will seek public opinions on the new proposals and this process will be continued till the end of February. It was proposed to set up the new districts from Ugadi onwards.