Divide districts with maximum radius of 70 km at Ongole: Prakasam Zilla Abhivruddhi Vedika

Ongole: The Prakasam Zilla Abhivruddhi Vedika (PZAV) suggested the government to divide the existing districts based on the proximity to the headquarters than by going blind with the concept of making each Lok Sabha constituency as a district. The forum organized a discussion with people from various sections of society on the proposal to divide the district on Wednesday and prepared a representation to submit the same to the high power committee on the division of the districts, formed by the state government.

All India Kisan Sabha national president Ravula Venkaiah presided over the meeting, while the Prakasam Zilla Abhivruddhi Vedika president Chunduri Rangarao, APCC vice-president Sripati Prakasam, OPDR state vice-president Chavali Sudhakar Rao, AP Students JAC president Rayapati Jagadeesh, Dalit Hakkula Porata Samithi state leader Karavadi Subbarao, Ambedkarist Jai Bheem Nageswara Rao, Dr Chunchu Chalamaih, Dr Ravipati Prasada Rao, advocates Panguluri Govindaiah, Bhairapaneni Devakumari, Paruchuri Nanda, farmers' leader Abburi Seshagiri Rao, CPI leader K Veerareddy and others also participated in the meeting.

The speakers observed that in the existing Prakasam district, remote places in the western constituencies like Giddalur and Yerragondaplame are at 140 to 150 kilometers in distance from the district headquarters and it is expensive and troublesome for the public to reach Ongole. Similarly, they explained that if the proposal to form each Lok Sabha constituency as a district comes into reality, then the villages in Santhanuthalapadu, which are at just 3 kilometers distance from Ongole, will be forced to join the Bapatla district, which is far away.

The speakers advised the government that it will be best in terms of the facility to the public to arrange districts with not more than 70 kilometers radius from the headquarters as center. They said that it would be okay, even if the number of districts is more than the number of Lok Sabha constituencies just like in the cases of states smaller than Andhra Pradesh like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Odisha with the number of districts 38, 33, and 30 respectively.

The speakers also questioned the rationale in dividing the districts as per the Lok Sabha constituency limits, while the Union government hinted the delimitation of assembly constituencies in 2024 and there are chances of places go from one constituency to other assembly constituency and thus the Lok Sabha constituency also. However, they proposed the government to consider bifurcating the Prakasam district into east and west parts and keep the name Prakasam district to the east part at Ongole as the headquarters and form the west part as Markapuram district with Markapuram as the headquarters.