Current Affairs - Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh will add 13 new districts this ‘Ugadi’ – Telugu New Year’s Day (falling on 2^nd April).

• The government has already issued draft notifications for carving out the new districts. Citizens residing within a district are also invited to send objections and suggestions for the same. These would be taken into consideration within 30 days.
• With the addition of 13 new districts, Andhra Pradesh will soon get 26 districts in total.
• This exercise is being done under Section 3 (5) of the AP Districts (Formation) Act, 1974.

Two Exclusive Districts for Tribal Population

• The two new tribal districts will be Manyam, with headquarters in Parvathipuram, and Alluri Sitarama Raju, named after the legendary Telugu freedom fighter with headquarters in Paderu.

Other New Districts

• The other new districts are Anakapalli (out of the existing Visakhapatnam district), Konaseema and Kakinada (out of East Godavari), Eluru (out of West Godavari), NTR (out of Krishna), Bapatla and Palnadu (out of Guntur), Nandyal (out of Kurnool), Sri Satya Sai (out of Anantapuramu), Annamayya (out of Kadapa) and Sri Balaji (out of Chittoor).

Note: The headquarters of the existing East Godavari district is being shifted to Rajamahendravaram and that of West Godavari to Bhimavaram.

• The Andhra Pradesh government has announced 10% reservation for the Kapu community and other Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) for appointments in the initial posts and services in the State government in accordance with the Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019.
• The latest order practically annuls two laws enacted by the previous government in 2019 that split the 10 per cent EWS reservation into equal halves, with one half exclusively for the Kapu community, making it a sub-category under EWS.
• The state government has, in fact, been implementing EWS reservation in education for the last two years following interim orders passed by the High Court in a writ petition.
• Persons who are not covered under the existing scheme of reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and socially and educationally backward classes, with a gross family income below Rs 8 lakh per annum, will get the benefit of EWS reservation.

Andhra Pradesh has become the second State after Madhya Pradesh to undertake the power sector reforms stipulated by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance.

As part of the reforms, the State has started Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of electricity subsidy to farmers with effect from September, 2020. Thus, the State has successfully implemented one out of the three stipulated reforms in the power sector.

As per the guidelines issued by the Department of Expenditure, the States undertaking reforms in power sector are granted permission to raise additional financial resources of up to 0.25 percent of the GSDP. This is linked to a set of 3 reforms in the sector:

1. 0.05 % of GSDP for reduction in Aggregate Technical & Commercial losses in the State as per prescribed targets.
2. Another, 0.05 % of GSDP is allowed for reduction in the gap between Average Cost of Supply and Average Revenue Realisation (ACS-ARR gap) in the State as per prescribed targets.
3. Finally, 0.15 % of GSDP of the State on introduction of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to all farmers in the State in lieu of free/ subsidised electricity. For this, the State government has to frame a scheme for transfer of cash and implement the scheme in at least one district by 31st December, 2020.