The fast-unto-death agitation launched by YSR Congress District president Gudiwada Amarnath for a new railway zone with Visakhapatnam as headquarters will spread like wildfire to the entire State and engulf both the governments at the Centre and in the State, said the speakers at the launch of the agitation near the Gandhi statue here on Thursday.
Had the BJP and the TDP been serious on their promise on the zone, the one month notice given by Mr. Amarnath would have been utilised to make an announcement on the issue, instead of indulging in mudslinging against the YSRC, they opined.
Though the call for the agitation was given by the YSRC, leaders and representatives of various political parties including the CPI, CPI-M, Lok Satta, NGOs and members of the general public participated in good numbers, braving the oppressive summer heat.
The speakers expressed the view that only an agitation on the scale of ‘Visakha Ukku, Andhrula Hakku’, spearheaded by Tenneti Viswanadham, would pressure the Centre to act and make it implement its election promise of announcing the new railway zone.
YSRC leaders Botcha Satyanarayana and Ambati Rambabu said the TDP and the BJP had announced in their election manifestoes that a new railway zone would be set up with headquarters in Visakhapatnam. The zone was no where in sight though the Governments would soon be completing two years in power.
Praja Spandana president CS Rao decried the degeneration of politics and called upon the elected leaders either to stand by their word or resign from their posts.
CPI leader J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy recalled that the agitation for the new zone in Visakhapatnam was 20 years old. A resolution was made in the AP Assembly that Visakhapatnam would be the headquarters of the zone.
Though the Chief Minister was pitching for Visakhapatnam as headquarters in public, he was working behind the scenes to shift the headquarters to Vijayawada, Mr. Murthy alleged and said that if an immediate announcement was not made the agitation would spread to the entire state.
Referring to BJP State president and Visakhapatnam MP K. Haribabu, CPI-M leader Ch. Narasinga Rao said: “Railway zone will not come, if you give chairs and benches to the railway station. You need to exert pressure on the Centre for it”.
Later in the evening, YSRC leader Vijay Sai Reddy called on the fasting leader and addressed the gathering.
