As many as 24 CPI activists were arrested when they laid siege to the Head Post Office here on Wednesday, demanding that the Centre fulfil the promises made to the State in A.P. State Reorganisation Act, which include special category status, special grant for Rayalaseema and three North Andhra coastal districts, and a Railway Zone at Visakhapatnam.
With the protesters blocking the entrance at the HPO from 9 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., works on the premises came to a grinding halt as no employee was allowed to go inside the office.
Police took the agitators into custody. They were released in the evening.
District CPI secretary P. Kameswara Rao, CPI (M) cadres led by M. Krishna Murty, state secretariat member, and T. Suryanarayana, district secretary, took part in the dharna. A protest was organised at the Collector’s office.
They demanded that the TDP government allocate an additional grant of Rs. 1,000 crore in the State Budget for completion of the pending irrigation projects.
Mr. Krishna Murty said that negligence of the successive governments, only a little over one lakh acres out of the total eight lakh acres of cultivable land was brought under plough by utilising 10-12 tmcft of water out of the 100 tmcft available for irrigation in the district.
Industrially, the government was not ready to settle disputes in the ferro-alloys and jute industries.
On healthcare front, he said, since tribal people were unable to go to the KGH in Vizag due to economic constraints, the government must sanction a government medical college in Vizianagaram .
