‘March 4 AP’ today to exert pressure on Centre to fulfill promises

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh First Society (AP First Society), a civil society organisation, will organise ‘March 4 AP’ in Vijayawada city on Sunday protesting against the gross injustice meted out by the Union government to the State in allotment of grants during the last four years and fulfilling the promises made in the AP Re-organisation Act. 

Addressing a media conference here on Saturday, B G R Mandava, President of the AP First Society, said more than 1500 volunteers and members of the Society would take part in the walk from NTR Statue in Patamata to Swarajya Madian on MG Road. He said preparations have been made for the walk on Sunday. 

He alleged that the BJP-led NDA government was adopting a step-motherly attitude towards Andhra Pradesh in fulfilling the assurances made in the AP Re-organisation Act. He said the Union government had allocated only Rs 1500 crore for construction of capital Amaravati while the same BJP government had sanctioned Rs 8000 crore for the development of Dolera city in Gujarat. 

He further alleged that the Central government had allotted only Rs 1,050 crore against the package of Rs 24,350 crore announced for the development of backward regions in Rayalaseema and North Andhra. Mandava said there is no guarantee on construction of the Dugaraja patnam Port as no progress has been made during the last four years. He came down heavily on the Union government alleging that the latter had allocated grants worth lakhs of crores to the BJP-ruled States like Gujarat and Maharashtra. 

He recalled that Rs 1 lakh crore was being spent for the development of ports in Gujarat under the Sagarmala Project but no progress has been made on construction of Machilipatnam port or other ports in the State. He alleged that the BJP government is grossly neglecting the ports on the East Coast of India and giving top priority for the development of ports in the West Coast. 

He said the Central government had decided to merge Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation with the ONGC as the former had been suffering losses to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore and the same Central government is trying to privatise the Dredging Corporation of India located in Vizag on the pretext of suffering losses.  AP First Society members Chaganti Vijay Bhaskar, Gadde Hareesh, S Nageswaran and others present.