Amaravati, April 4: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday through video conferencing formally launched 13 new districts in the state taking the total number to 26.

Reddy extended his heartiest wishes and congratulations to the people, officials and employees for the formation of the new districts and asked the officials to ensure that people are benefited by the schemes announced by government.

Speaking on the occasion, he said people have accepted and appreciated the decentralised form of government as the schemes are directly delivered to their doorstep, and that the same is being extended to the districts now.

"We have seen the development through decentralised administration in the form of village and ward secretariats. We are now decentralising at the district level as well. From now on, AP is a state with 26 districts. We have at least one parliamentary constituency per district," Reddy said.

Reiterating that new districts are being created for the decentralisation and ease of administration, the Chief Minister said the formation of districts is very much needed for Andhra Pradesh which has a population of about five crore.

Each district will now have six to eight assembly segments except in one tribal district.

Reddy, during the poll campaign for the 2019 Assembly elections, promised that his party, if voted to power, would make every Lok Sabha constituency as a district.

The state has 25 Lok Sabha seats. One district was additionally created carving out the tribal areas in East Godavari and Visakhapatnam.

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New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.

The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.

Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.

“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.

Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”

Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.

In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project.”

"Modi Sarkar spent Rs 76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS. Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to celebrate their centenary?," he added. 

According to reports, the RSS describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.

Founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, the organisation is marking its centenary year beginning from Vijaydashami in 2025, with the milestone observed on October 2.