Vijayawada: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP, K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao, wrote an open letter to the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, questioning, why we aren’t able to get Special Category Status and other commitments in the AP Reorganisation Act, while the Tamilians had got Jallikattu ordinance, in three days, which they desperately wanted to protect their tradition. Are we building castles in the air? Isn’t it the responsibility of the Union Government to provide and give us what is our legally? Don’t we have unity and integrity? Why are we just accepting what the Union Government is allotting, why aren’t we pressurising the Union Government for the past 3 years to get what we deserve? He also asked the Chief Minister to give it a re-think.
Mr Ramachandra Rao also questioned what we have accomplished through the alternative solution of Special Assistance Measures to the state to adjust the losses incurred with bifurcation. He questioned what we have gained through SAM, in providing employment opportunities to Seemandhra, while Special Category Status is being given to sanjeevani from Seemandhra.
He also questioned the Vizag Railway Zone, which is said to be the backbone for the financial development of Northern Andhra. How did special assistance measures help the suffering backward classes in Northern Andhra, and how Rayalaseema which always witnesses drought, can benefit from SAM.
He further said that this is all because of criticising each other and not being united, the Union Government is neglecting and ignoring the state, as we aren’t pressurising it. If this protest to the Union Government is carried out under the leadership of the chief minister and the political parties, print and electronic media, agriculture, industries, cinema, health, education, sports, social service centers, big shots along with experts and public especially youth and students will stand in support.
