Hand over five merged AP villages : Puvvada to Centre

Hyderabad: Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar on Tuesday demanded the Centre to hand over at least five villages from the seven mandals, which were merged with Andhra Pradesh in the AP Reorganisation Act. He made the comment at a press conference in the TRSLP office.

Ajay demanded the Centre to bring in a legislation in the current session of Parliament to hand over the villages in the mandals which were merged with AP.

Later in the evening he tried to give clarifications on his comments in a press release. Ajay said it would be difficult to take up construction of bunds in the vicinity of villages like Etapaka, Kannai Gudem, Pichukala Padu, Purushottam Patnam and Gundala villages since they were handed over to AP by the BJP government at the Centre.

"As it is difficult for the State to take up constructions in villages of the neighbouring State, we demanded that if at least they are allocated to Telangana, we will take up constructions for flood prevention. For this, we request the Centre and AP Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy. "It is sad that ministers like Botsa Satyanarayana and Rambabu are speaking wrongly about this," said Ajay.

He took exception to Satyanarayana's comments that Hyderabad should be given to AP. People from remote areas in AP also come for darshan in Bhadrachalam. If it is submerged people would feel the pain but linking it to Hyderabad is not required", said Ajay, asking the AP ministers to immediately hold talks with Jagan and Telangana CM KCR in a harmonious atmosphere.

He said, along with people of Bhadrachalam, even God was getting submerged whenever there was a flood in the Godavari. He said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had directed authorities to take up permanent measures. The minister said KCR has allocated Rs 1,000 crore to undertake many constructions, including colonies, in elevated areas.