The Rayalaseema Development Forums Joint Action Committee, which held a meeting in Tirupati, in support of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s three-capitals move, sought that the executive capital be provided to the Rayalaseema region, as the proposal for High Court in Kurnool was not adequate for the uplift of the region’s backwardness.
Speakers at the conclave held at TUDA Maidan observed that decentralized development alone could salvage the Rayalaseema region from decades of exploitation and under-development. The forum leaders focused on the travails of the region’s people after losing the water projects and state capital as well to other regions, apart from the scourge of farmers’ suicides.
The Rayalaseema Studies Forum convener, Bhuman Subramanyam Reddy, said that the State government's decision to form three capitals was welcome in the interest of the comprehensive development of the State. “Amaravati as capital is detrimental to the interests of the Rayalaseema districts. The idea of forming an executive capital in Rayalaseema is not newly seen in the backdrop of Kurnool becoming one while Guntur served as judicial capital in 1953,” he said. He termed the Amaravati farmers’ struggle as a farce to serve the interests of the real estate business. “It is concerned with just 29 villages, and the farmers there should struggle for compensation for their lands and not for having capital in Amaravati,” he said.
The JAC leaders said that a series of relay hunger strikes and intellectual sessions would be held all over the State in support of three capitals. As part of this, a walkathon would be launched from Srisailam to Amaravati in January, with a similar plan of action from the north Andhra region. The exact schedule of the walkathon would be announced soon, the leaders said.
The speakers faulted the TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu for pitching for Amaravati as capital. Terming Mr. Naidu as “Rayalaseema traitor”, they said that despite serving as the Chief Minister for over 14 years, he was utterly blind to the distress of the Rayalaseema people.
The JAC functionaries from the North Andhra region who also took part in the meet deplored backward of their districts and favored three capitals move of the state government.
Rayalaseema farmers and workers forum convenor Chandrasekhar Reddy, Intellectuals Forum president Purushotam Reddy, Rayalaseema Mahasabha president Shanti Narayana also took part in the meeting.
Meanwhile, the pro-Amaravati functionaries came down heavily on the Rayalaseema forums JAC, alleging that the organizers of Tirupati meet manipulated the government machinery to pool up crowds and force the DWCRA women groups to attend the event in large numbers.
