Tamil Nadu: Kallakurichi to have 1 parliament and 4 Assembly constituencies
Chennai: Tamil Nadu will soon have one more district added to its list. The new district Kallakurichi will be bifurcated from the neighbouring Villupuram district, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced on Tuesday.
This will be 33rd district in the State. Till 1960, Kallakurichi was a village and it was upgraded into a Town Panchayat, then as Special Grade Town Panchayat and to Third Grade Municipality. It was made a municipality on Sept. 7, 2010 and now it is on its way to become the 33rddistrict in the State. It presently has 21 wards and a total population of 52,507 with a sex-ratio of 984 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929, as per 2011 census.
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 15.49 per cent and 27 per cent of the population respectively. Kallakurichi is well connected by roads and the nearest railway head is at Chinnasalem. It is close to Kalvarayan hills and it is not only agrarian in nature but also a haven for tourists.
Several temples dot the landscape. Thenkeeranur is the largest revenue village in the Kallakurichi taluk. It has two large lakes for irrigation.
Winding up the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the Assembly, the Chief Minister said there have been requests from several quarters including Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam and the MLA from Ulundurpet Assembly constituency in Villupuram district for creating the new district. The move to carve out a separate district is aimed at benefitting Kallakurichi residents, too the CM added. A IAS officer will be appointed to oversee its creation and all details will be announced later.
As Villupuram covers a huge area, it was difficult for the administrators to govern the district. Currently, people from Kallakurichi have to travel atleast 70 km to reach the district collectorate in Villupuram.
The Villupuram district accounts for 11 Assembly constituencies and three Parliamentary constituencies and it is the fourth largest district in Tamil Nadu with an area of 7,217 sq km. Kallakurichi district is expected to have four Assembly constituencies and one parliamentary constituency.
Tiruppur was the newest district to be formed in the State in 2009 with parts from Coimbatore and Erode districts.
