As the date for the crucial meeting of the Congress Core Committee is fast approaching, the supporters of Samaikhyandhra intensified their pitch for continuation of the united State.
Rallies and meetings were held in several parts of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions demanding that the Centre maintain the status quo. The Samaikhyandhra Student JAC gave a Seemandhra bandh call on July 12, coinciding with the Core Committee meeting, to express their solidarity with the united State.
The JAC organised a rally in which students as well as political leaders including Infrastructure and Investment Minister Ganta Srinivas Rao took part. The JAC said the bandh call would cover all the 13 districts and 14 universities in the region even as the Minister assured that the State would continue to remain united. The MLAs and MPs of Seemandhra region would resign if any decision was taken to divide the State, the Minister said. Meanwhile, Uttarandhra Rakshana Vedika (URV) demanded the Centre to consider giving an exclusive economic package to north Andhra for the development and upliftment of the people. North Andhra was the most neglected and underdeveloped region in the State but has been, unfortunately, bracketed with the prosperous and rich Krishna-Godavari belt, the Vedika members said.
Similar rallies and demonstrations were held in Kurnool, Tirupati, Kadapa and other districts. In Tirupati, students and supporters of Samaikhyandhra took out an impressive rally and formed a human chain in support of maintaining the status quo. In Kurnool, Rayalaseema Hakkula Parirakshana Samiti president Byreddy Rajasekhara Reddy addressed a rally of activists that demanded separate statehood to Rayalaseema in the event of bifurcation of the State.
Teachers, non-teaching staff and students of Yogi Vemana University of Kadapa boycotted classes and staged a rasta roko on Kadapa-Pulivendula road, bringing traffic to a standstill for a couple of hours.
The teaching faculty in Sri Venkateswara University conducted a seminar where speakers outlined the sacrifices that were made to carving out the State.
