Create Greater Rayalaseema State with 11 districts: Rayalaseema Rashtra Samithi

Anantapur: Rayalaseema Rashtra Samithi (RRS) president K Venkata Subba Reddy has demanded statehood to Rayalaseema region with 11 districts, four from Rayalaseema and seven districts from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference at the Roads and Buildings guest house here on Wednesday, Subba Reddy urged the central government to carve out a separate State of Rayalaseema with 11 districts including Chittoor, Kadapa, Anantapur, Kurnool, Nellore, Prakasam and three districts from Karnataka Bellary, Kolar, and Raichur and two districts from Tamilnadu, Krishnagiri and Vellore.

He said that this demand was in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy of carving out smaller States for administrative convenience. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand are apt examples, he added. He urged the Prime Minister to introduce a Bill in the Parliament in this regard to realise the aspirations of Rayalaseema region.

He maintained that 70 per cent of the population in the districts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were Telugu-speaking people. He alleged that the neighbouring States were showing discrimination towards Telugu people who settled there.

He had a dig at the former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu for concentrating all development in Amaravati ignoring Rayalaseema region.

All former chief ministers of AP including Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy, Chandrababu Naidu, YS Rajasekhara Reddy and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was from Rayalaseema region but ironically all these chief ministers neglected Rayalaseema and did nothing for the region except contributing to backwardness.

He maintained that the present chief minister too despite talking about decentralised development to all regions opted to develop Visakhapatnam as an executive capital of AP, again giving a raw deal to Rayalaseema.

Unless a Greater Rayalaseema State is formed with 11 districts, the region has bleak prospects for development. There are also no industries in the region worth mentioning except Kia Motors. The much-promised steel plant in Kadapa should also become a reality, he demanded.