The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Separate Rayalaseema not viable, says freedom fighter

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 10, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Separate Rayalaseema not viable, says freedom fighter

By Our Staff Reporter

KURNOOL, JULY 9. The president of the Kurnool district freedom fighters association, Gurram Venkat Reddy, opposed the demand of statehood for Rayalaseema on the ground that it was not viable. Reacting to the meetings held at various places in the region recently, Mr. Venkat Reddy said the leaders who are supporting such a demand should see the practical difficulties involved in administering a small state like Rayalaseema, if it was created.

Mr. Venkat Reddy said other regions had developed at the cost of Rayalaseema, while the leadership from the region was in a slumber. People from coastal Andhra worked and lobbied hard for the development of their region.

Though five Chief Ministers and a President of the country hailed from the area and a Prime Minister got elected from the region, there was no visible development in Rayalaseema.

Supporters of separate Rayalaseema should not ignore the fact that the population of Telangana was around four crore, that of Coastal Andhra three crore, while the population of Rayalaseema was only 1 crore. The pending or the proposed projects in Rayalaseema would require Rs 10,000 crores for completion. The region experienced drought in three years out of the five-year cycle.

The only notable asset in Rayalaseema is the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala, whose annual revenue was around Rs 500 crores.

Mr Reddy said that of the 5,000 villages in the region, 3,000 villages faced the worst-kind of water shortage, while only about 500 villages had access to safe drinking water during summer. The land with irrigation facility in Coastal Andhra accounted for 88 per cent, Telangana 68 per cent and Rayalaseema only 37 per cent.

He said the gentlemen's agreement, popularly known as Sribagh Pact, which gave weightage to Rayalaseema was never honoured.

Mr. Venkat Reddy, who had links with the Communist Party, said the communists should also be blamed for depriving the region of irrigation facility, as the first project on the Krishna was proposed at Siddeswaram near Nandikotkur which would have irrigated over 11 lakh acres in the region while five lakh acres was proposed to be irrigated in Tamil Nadu.

The Left parties opposed the project with the intention of stalling the attempts to take the Krishna water to Tamil Nadu, but ignored the incidental benefits to the Rayalaseema region.

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