As Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has successfully completed seven days of his second leg of ‘odarpu yatra' on Wednesday in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister K. Rosaiah met Congress leader Ahmed Patel here and gave a detailed report about the happenings in the yatra.
Though Mr. Rosaiah refused to comment on his discussions with Mr. Patel, who is the political secretary of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, sources said during the meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr. Jagan's yatra figured prominently besides the ensuing Assembly bypoll in the Telangana region and the ongoing Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee proceedings. It is learnt that Mr. Rosaiah gave details of MPs/MLAs, party seniors, who were accompanying Mr. Jagan and about the people's response to his tour.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister told journalists that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had given appointment on July 23 to him to lead an all-party delegation to meet Dr. Singh on the Babli project dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
To a question he denied that BHEL project in Chittoor district would be moving away to Rajasthan and reiterated that Dr. Singh would be coming to the State to participate in the postponed foundation laying ceremony.
Mr. Rosaiah, during his two day stay here, met President Pratibha Patil to thank her for visiting the State to participate in the celebrations to mark the 500 {+t} {+h} year of king Krishnadevaraya's coronation. He also met Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to demand, among other things, Rs.1600 crore additional assistance for police modernisation/for anti-naxal programme, one more helicopter to transport men and materials involved in anti-naxal operations, and declaring Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts as “naxal hit” and provision of special assistance from the Centre to those districts.
Chief Ministers' meet
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Wednesday sought changes in the criteria for choosing districts affected by Maoists for a focused development programme of the Home Ministry and sought inclusion of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and East Godavari districts in the project.
Addressing a meeting of the Chief Ministers of naxal-hit States convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here he said at least Visakhapatnam should be added in the scheme for special development on priority basis.
“If Andhra Pradesh has to sustain the gains of controlling Left-wing extremism on a permanent basis, it is imperative to categorise all eight border districts as special focus districts for development by bringing about necessary change in the selection criteria for this purpose.”
He said in Maoists menace existed for long in the districts having border with Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra and that had been contained to a “reasonable extent” over a period of several decades through sustained efforts. However these districts continued to face the risk of relapse.
“It will be appropriate to consolidate the gains we have achieved after sustained efforts in terms of retrieving the areas from extremist influence by undertaking developmental programmes with immediate effect before Naxalism could relapse,” Mr. Rosaiah said.
