Controversy over renaming YSR Kadapa district

Anantapur:Ruling Telugu Desam and BJP leaders are continuing to voice their demand of renaming YSR Kadapa district as just Kadapa,

In the latest instance, health minister Satya Kumar, BJP MLA from Dharmavaram, has given a representation to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to rename the district as Kadapa. He pointed out that Kadapa had been known for centuries as Devuni Gadapa or the entry point for the historic Tirumala. BJP MLA C. Adinarayana Reddy also wants to limit the district’s name to just Kadapa.

YSRC is, however, opposing the alliance government plans to rename the district. Party leaders point out that the district had been named after late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy when AP had been a combined state in 2010. The then Congress government led by Chief Minister K. Rosaiah issued a gazette notification changing the name of the district to YSR Kadapa.

Former MLA Ravindranath Reddy of Kamalapuram recalled that the district’s name had been changed to YSR Kadapa, recognising the extensive services Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had rendered to the region.

“The alliance government only wants to ignite tensions in the region,” Ravindranath Reddy remarked.