Rahul Gandhi promises to develop Andhra Pradesh as a model of country

Anantapur: Reaching out to voters of Andhra Pradesh post bifurcation, AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi ensured that the residuary state would be developed as a model state in the country. “Congress party is committed to make the state a Navyandhrapradesh with enormous development in all sectors,” he said in his first meeting in residuary AP, after the carving out of Telangana. The AICC vice-president, during his half-an-hour speech at a public meeting in Hindupur in Anantapur district, tried to convince and impress the people about the decision on AP division. Except for just mentioning that the TD, BJP, YSR Congress and others forced the Congress-led UPA government to carve out the state, Mr Gandhi had availed mo-st of the time to talk about future development and his vision of residuary AP in the coming days. “Congress party would take any decision after reviewing several times and once decision is taken, we will stand by it. And the Telangana issue was long pending since 60 years,” he said, adding that bifurcation has been painful for many but one needs to concentrate on future now. The Congress vice-president said that, along with party president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he had insisted that Seemandhra should get a special status. Announcing several sops for the facelift of Seemandhra, Mr Gandhi pledged, “The best educational institutions in the country will come to this state. We are going to bring IIT, NIT, IIM, IIIT, AIIMS, Petroleum, Agriculture and Tribal universities.” The Nehru-Gandhi sci-on reiterated that Polavaram project would be granted a national project status and would facilitate irrigation of maximum land in Seemandhra and Vizag city would soon have round-the-clock drinking water supply. Mr Gandhi, however, made it clear that Hyderabad belongs to everybody and students would get all benefits of reservation facility for the next 10 years. Ensuring security for Seemandhra people at Hyderabad, he said, “I came here to assure immediate development of the state and people need not worry about security at Hyderabad.” The Congress state in-charge Digvijay Singh, publicity committee chairperson K. Chiranjeevi and APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy and several others participated at the public meeting.