Declaring a railway zone with Visakhapanam as headquarters will spur development of the North Andhra districts, CPI(M) State secretariat member Ch. Narsinga Rao and CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy said at a protest at the Gandhi statue near GVMC on Friday.
Successive governments at the Centre had been dragging their feet on the issue in spite of the two-decade-old struggle for the railway zone, they said. The people of North Andhra were being given a raw deal by merging the maximum-revenue earning Visakhapatnam division in the East Coast Railway.
Though the Reorganisation Act specifically assured the zone with Visakhapatnam as headquarters, the BJP Government was not making any categorical announcement, the Left leaders said.
Even for the development of Vizag-Chennai industrial corridor, declaring a zone was crucial, Mr. Rao and Mr. Murthy said adding it would result in more employment opportunities.
CPI(M) leaders V.S. Padmanabha Raju, R.K.S.V. Kumar, G.S. Rajeswara Rao, B. Padma and P. Mani and CPI leaders A.J. Stalin, D. Markandeyulu, A. Vimala, J.D. Naidu and M. Paidiraju participated.
Successive governments at the Centre have been dragging their feet on the issue, they say
