Nine new districts formed in Chhattisgarh

Nine more new districts formed in Chhattisgarh on 1st January 2012, taking the total number to 27, chief minister Raman Singh said. The new districts, a new year gift to people, were carved out to speed up the pace of development, Singh said while talking to reporters here. The new districts are Sukma, Kondagaon, Balod, Bemetara, Baloda Bazar, Gariaband, Mungeli, Surajpur and Balrampur. Sukma district has been carved out of the state's worst Maoist affected Dantewada district and Kondagaon from the insurgency-hit Bastar district.

When the state was formed, Chhattisgarh had 16 districts in 2000. The number was increased to 18 with the formation of two new districts. While the new districts had officially come into existence from today, the process of putting things in order continued. “The process for setting-up the establishments in the new districts (that include industrial centres) has started and it will be completed soon,” Chief Minister Raman Singh said. The move to carve out new districts was aimed to make governance reach upto the people, he added. The change in the geography of the districts had also sparked off controversy over boundaries in a few places.