Elite sections in Prakasam district have decided to intensify the stir coinciding with the ongoing Budget session of Parliament to impress upon the Centre to locate the sanctioned major port to Andhra Pradesh at Ramayapatnam.
Briefing newsmen here on Wednesday, Prakasam District Development Forum Chairman Chunduri Ranga Rao, after chairing a brainstorming session, said a vigorous campaign would be taken up on the social media to exert pressure on the State government to take a call on the project site in the wake of the Centre ruling out taking up the public sector port project at Dugarajapatnam.
The Centre, instead of awaiting the State government’s response, should proceed ahead with implementation of the project as the work on another port on the east coast — at Sagar island in West Bengal proceeded swiftly, he said.
Ramayapatnam Sadhana Samiti president L.V. Ramamurthy, a US-based non-resident Indian hailing from Ulavapadu in the district, said he would call on Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu soon to persuade the latter to take a decision on shifting the project site.
Dispute-free location
Close on the heels of the ‘Jaladeeksha’ staged by members of the Andhra Pradesh Students and Youth Joint Action Committee (APSYAC) at Ramayapatnam on March 18, it planned to call for a district bandh next week to achieve the demand, said its president Rayapati Jagadeesh. Only through port-led development mode employment could be generated for youth in drought-prone Prakasam district.
There would not be any inter-district wrangles as Ramayapatnam is part of the Kandukur Assembly segment of the Nellore Lok Sabha constituency, felt Forum for Good Governance president T. Gopal Reddy.
