Rayalaseema ‘statehood’ demand grows
Suresh Dharur
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, November 15
Nearly one-and-half years after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to carve out Telangana state, the rumblings of protests are growing louder in the backward Rayalaseema region, demanding a separate Rayalaseema state.
Rayalaseema comprises Kurnool, Kadapa, Chittoor and Anantapur districts, a majority of them are perennially drought-prone areas with poor irrigation facilities. It is now part of the residual Andhra Pradesh whose new capital city Amaravati is coming up in the prosperous coastal region.
There is a growing criticism in political circles that the Telugu Desam Party government, headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, is focusing all its attention on the coastal region, particularly the Vijayawada-Guntur belt, and serving the interests of influential communities that form the backbone of support for the ruling party.
“We have been victims of deliberate neglect by all the successive governments in the combined state and now after the bifurcation our interests are being ignored. Separate state is the only solution,” said K Venkata Subba Reddy, the president of Rayalaseema Rashtra Samiti (RRS), an outfit floated recently to fight for the statehood cause. The RRS has set December 2018 as deadline for the Union Government to carve out a separate Rayalaseema state and also demanded a special package of Rs 10 lakh crore for developing the backward region.
Along with the four Rayalaseema districts, there is a demand to include the neighbouring districts of Prakasam and Nellore from coastal Andhra and few districts from Karnataka in the proposed Rayalaseema state.
Meanwhile, former MP and member of YSR Congress Party MV Mysoora Reddy is said to be mulling to quit the party and join the agitation. He has been campaigning against pumping huge funds for the construction of Amaravati in coastal AP and opposing the centralization of all sectors at one place.
However, YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who belongs to Kadapa and is seen as the most influential Rayalaseema politician, has been maintaining a studied silence on the statehood demand. He has been opposing the construction of Amaravati on fertile lands.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who is also a native of Rayalaseema, asserted his government would spare no efforts for speedy development of Rayalaseema region.
