C M Ramesh writes to Narendra Modi, says will go on fast on the issue

New Delhi: TDP Rajya Sabha member C M Ramesh in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, said he would be “constrained to undertake an indefinite fast” if immediate steps are not taken to establish a steel plant in Andhra Pradesh's Kadapa district.

Ramesh wrote the letter five days after the Centre, citing a Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) feasibility report, informed the Supreme Court that it was not “financially viable” to construct a steel plant in Kadapa district.

“The Government of India filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the project is not economically viable. It appears that the said statement was based on the previous SAIL report.

This news aroused emotions of the people of Andhra Pradesh in general and those from Kadapa district in particular,” the letter read. It is the Centre’s responsibility to fulfil the assurance as stated in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (APR) Act, the TDP MP wrote in the letter.

He said the Centre should take early action for the establishment of an integrated steel plant in Kadapa district at the earliest or “I will be constrained to undertake an indefinite fast.”