Administration begins in Anakapalle, Alluri Sitharama Raju districts today

Visakhapatnam: The long wait for the formation of new districts has come to an end as the state is all set to get divided into 26 districts from the existing 13 districts from Monday.

The newly-appointed officers will now come to the aid of the denizens where Visakhapatnam has been spread over three districts.

The Andhra Pradesh government released the gazette on Saturday midnight regarding the new districts in AP and thereby putting an end to the suspense brewing for the past few days as to who would get posted where.

As decided earlier, Anakapalle and Alluri Sitarama Raju districts were carved out of Visakhapatnam district. The new districts will come into effect from Monday.

Visakhapatnam district has six Assembly constituencies and Anakapalle district has seven constituencies. Similarly, Alluri Sitarama Raju district has three constituencies.

Much to the relief of the locals, the Pendurthi mandal of Pendurthi constituency continues to be in Visakhapatnam district. However, Parawada and Sabbavaram mandals of Pendurthi constituency were merged in Anakapalle district.

Anakapalle Parliamentary constituency was initially proposed to have a total of seven Assembly constituencies in the district. But, in the last minute, Pendurthi mandal was merged with Visakhapatnam district following the public demand. This has resulted in partial inclusion of Pendurthi constituency with Anakapalle.

With this, there will be six Assembly constituencies and a major part of Pendurthi constituency in Anakapalle district and a mandal of Pendurthi in Visakhapatnam.

Meanwhile, the government has issued orders appointing Collectors and SPs to the new districts. Alluri Sitarama Raju district is the largest district in the state by area. The district still has Paderu, Rampachodavaram and Chintoor Integrated Tribal Development Authority (ITDAs).

According to the latest orders, Dr. A. Mallikarjuna will continue as the Collector of Visakhapatnam. Pattaneshetti Ravi Subhash has been posted as the Collector of the newly formed Anakapalle district and Sumit Kumar as Alluri Sitarama Raju district Collector.

Visakhapatnam city DCP Gowthami Sali posted as Anakapalle Superintendent of Police (SP).

City Police Commissioner Manish Kumar Sinha has been appointed as the Chairman of state-level Police Recruitment Board. He will be replaced by Ch Srikanth who was Inspector General of SIB. Srikanth studied in Visakhapatnam city earlier.

After being selected as IPS, Srikanth served as Srikakulam SP and later as Visakhapatnam Range DIG. From Additional Superintendent of Police, SEB, J Sathish Kumar has been appointed as Alluri Sitarama Raju district SP.

Meanwhile, M Venugopal Reddy, who served as Visakhapatnam Joint Collector, has been appointed as Guntur Collector, another JC P Arunbabu as Eluru JC and Housing JC Kalpana Kumari as Joint Collector of Anakapalle district.

VMRDA Commissioner K Venkata Ramana Reddy has been appointed as the District Collector of Sri Satya Sai district.

Along with Visakhapatnam City Commissioner Police Ch Srikanth, Gowtham Sali took charge as Anakapalle SP on Sunday.