Rayalaseema Parirakshana Samithi president Byreddy Rajasekhara Reddy on Thursday urged Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to specify what percentage of funds being spent on development of capital city Amaravati, and Rayalaseema.
“Mr. Naidu must state if he would spend at least five to 10 per cent of funds spent on Amaravati, for development in Rayalaseema”, Mr. Rajasekhara Reddy said at a media conference here.
While the government announced a ring road at Amaravati with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore, its fund allocation in Rayalaseema was a pittance, he said.
The backwardness and prolonged neglect of the backward Rayalaseema region was evident by unprecedented fall in the population compared to 2001 and 2011 census, phenomenal rise in number of school dropouts and suicides by farmers due to crop losses, drying up of borewells and fall in land under cultivation, he said.
The land under cultivation fell by about 25 per cent due to lack of irrigation water as the most irrigation projects remained incomplete, he said. The loan waiver was dubious and banks were refusing to grant fresh loans to farmers. Scores of farmers’ families were debt-ridden in the region.
The proposed six-lane highway would only help people migrate faster to cities, he said.
Mr. Naidu who took no steps to develop Rayalaseema in his previous stint as Chief Minister for nine years, was of late claiming to be the son of the soil and that he would transfer the backward region into Ratnalaseema (land of precious stones), which was a ploy to hoodwink the people, he alleged.
