: With hopes of getting SCS to Andhra Pradesh fading, the Rayalaseema Rashtra Samithi on Tuesday demanded creation of greater Rayalaseema State, redrawing the map of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as well to merge with it Telugu-speaking regions in the neighbouring States.
“As the State was divided in a haphazard manner without respecting the sentiments of Rayalseema people, the RRS will spearhead a protracted struggle to achieve the new State comprising Vellore and Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu and Bellary and Raichur in Karnataka,” asserted its president Kuncham Venkata Subba Reddy. The Telugu people in the neighbouring States were unable to pursue their language and culture and as a result gradually losing their cultural identity, he complained.
“Separate State, and not just SCS, will satisfy us now,” he asserted after holding a preparatory meeting with elite sections of people in Prakasam district, which was carved out composite Kurnool district in 1970.
“Greater Rayalaseema comprising 11 districts as in 1951 is the need of the hour for this drought-prone region to get its due share in development,” he told reporters here after the meeting. Rayalseema had been denied its due share of Krishna water, he complained.
