The speakers at the roundtable on ‘Visakha Railway Zone’ resolved to intensify their struggle to exert pressure on the Centre to make an announcement by March 5.
The meeting, with representatives or people’s organisations and leaders of political parties, was organised by the AP Union of Working Journalists at the Visakhapatnam Public Library on Tuesday.
The youth of North Andhra would get preference in jobs, if Visakhapatnam was made the headquarters of new zone, said a former member of the Union Public Service Commission K.S. Chalam. He alleged that some political leaders were trying to make a plea for location of the headquarters elsewhere with the objective of getting commissions in the project.
Visakha Railway Zone Sadhana Samithi convener and CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy recalled that in the past BJP leaders had said that then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu would make an announcement on the zone during his visit to the city, but later changed their words.
He spoke on the reduction in the wagon availability quota for Visakhapatnam and failure to add new lines in Andhra region by the Bhubaneswar-headquartered East Coast Railway (ECoR). With hundreds of acres of railway land available in the city, there was no need of acquiring a single acre for the headquarters in Visakhapatnam.
Capital-centric development
He said that the Chief Minister, who leaves no opportunity to say that he was responsible for the development of Hyderabad, should also realise that his folly of capital-centric development was responsible for the bifurcation of A.P. He was now repeating his mistake by planning to concentrate everything around Amaravati. He said that this was the reason why Mr. Naidu was not restraining his MPs from making unwarranted comments on the location of the headquarters. He alleged that the TDP leaders were indulging in ‘selective leaks’ on the zone to know the pulse of the people.
Dr. Kutikuppala Surya Rao, a noted physician, called for greater awareness among the local people in this regard.
YSR Congress Party city president Malla Vijay Prasad called for unity among all parties to achieve the railway zone. Congress leader Gunturu Narasimha Murthy alleged that the BJP was trying to cheat the people by going back on the election promises. CPI(M) leader Mani and YSRCP leader Pasupuleti Usha Kiran spoke.
APUWJ leaders R. Ramachandra Rao and Chandramohan were present.
