The Rampa Zilla Sadhana Samithi (RZSS) on Monday launched a signature campaign demanding a separate district with headquarters at Rampachodavaram in East Godavari district. The one-week campaign being conducted by the samithi received overwhelming response from the local tribal communities.
“On Monday alone, at least 300 locals, mostly women, put their signature. They belong to different parts of Rampa Agency and many of them came to Rampachodavaram to register their grievances during the weekly programme conducted on the premises of Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) office,” said RZSS convener Balu Akkisa.
“We have already completed the village-level awareness meetings, explaining the need for raising the voice for separate district with headquarters in Rampachodavaram, consisting of tribal pockets in Rampa and Chintoor agencies. The people have realised the challenges to be faced in the event of inclusion of Rampa Agency in the Araku district,” said Mr. Balu Akkisa, also a human rights activist.
Submission by month-end
The signature campaign would focus on collecting the signature from the people of different walks of life in the East Godavari Agency, which shares border with Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. The members of the RZSS would meet the government employees, students, village elders and others as part of the campaign.
“By November-end, the documents of the signature campaign will be submitted to the East Godavari District Collector and office of the Chief Minister for consideration of creating the Rampa district from the Araku parliament segment,” said Mr. Balu Akkisa.
Samithi media convener Ch. Nagavara Kiran, active members B. Satyanarayana, M. Anji Reddy, Ch. Venkateswara Rao, and Yusuf Khan are actively taking part in the campaign.
