NEW DELHI: Delhi could soon have three more districts to add to the current 11. A Delhi government official said on Thursday that an increase in the number of revenue districts had been proposed because it was felt that while the population of Delhi had seen a big increase, the number of districts had stagnated, causing crowding and long waiting times in administrative offices, especially in the trans-Yamuna region.The official said that while a study is being conducted to examine the ambit of such an increase, the number could go up to 14. At present, the capital has 11 revenue districts, 15 police districts, 13 education districts and 12 municipal zones. Each of the revenue districts is headed by a district magistrate and the 33 subdivisions into which the districts are divided have a sub-divisional magistrate at their head.These offices are responsible for the enforcement and implementation of all Delhi government policies and they exercise supervisory powers over numerous functionaries of the government. Among the charges these offices have are land administration, including maintenance of land records and assessment and collection of land revenue, social security measures such as pension for disadvantaged groups, rehabilitation of displaced persons and disaster management.Ideally, there should be one DM’s office for every 10 lakh population. “But that would mean there should be 20 DM’s offices for the city’s two-crore population. That is a big increase, so we are not proposing 20 districts. It could be around 14,” said the government official.The current districts of Delhi are Central Delhi with its headquarter in Daryaganj, East headquartered in Shastri Nagar, New Delhi at Jamnagar House, North district in Alipur, North-East district in Nand Nagri, North-West in Kanjhawala, Shahdara in Nand Nagri, South with its headquarters in Saket, South-East in Lajpat Nagar, South-West Delhi in Kapashera and West district with its headquarters at Shivaji Place.In recent years, the administrative offices in the capital, especially in northeast Delhi and the trans-Yamuna region, have been overcrowded because these places are high density population areas. Creating new districts would alleviate the load on overburdened offices.In the 1970s, Delhi had only the four administrative districts of North, South, Central and New Delhi. Between January 1997 and September 2012, there were nine administrative districts and 27 sub-divisions. In September 2012, two new administrative districts – South-East and Shahdara – were added to the city’s map.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-may-get-3-more-districts-for-better-management/articleshow/98375478.cms
