The speakers at a roundtable meeting on “Development of North Andhra – People’s Participation”, organised by the Forum for Development of North Andhra (FDNA), while welcoming the decision of the YSR Congress Party government to make Visakhapatnam as Executive capital of Andhra Pradesh, said that concrete steps are required for development of North Andhra.
Expressing concern at the backwardness of the region even after 75 years of Independence, they said that it was high time the people of the region launched an agitation for its development. The continued silence of the local people poses a danger of the region being pushed to further backwardness, they said.
They deplored the Central government for failing to implement the assurances given to Andhra Pradesh in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. Measures were not being taken for the operationalisation of Visakhpatnam-headquartered South Coast Railway (S Co R) Zone though an announcement was made long ago. The Vizag Metro Rail was forgotten, and the construction of educational institutions in North Andhra was progressing at a snail’s pace.
Former Vice-Chancellor of Dravidian University K.S. Chalam spoke on the injustice done to the people of North Andhra since Independence. The lack of priority given to North Andhra in the sanction of irrigation projects has resulted in the region remaining backward despite having all the resources. The younger generation migrated to other parts of the country in search of jobs while workers moved to construction sites across India in search of employment.
Former MLC M.V.S. Sarma suggested that a sustained people’s movement for North Andhra could be achieved by weaving the agitation around the struggle for protection of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), which has been going on for more than 600 days. He alleged that the YSR Congress Party government and also the Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) were unable to protest against Modi government decision on privatisation of VSP. The BJP government could not go ahead so far on the VSP as there was stiff opposition from the steel workers and the public, he said.
FDNA general secretary A. Aja Sarma presided.
Autonagar Welfare Association secretary Siva Prasad, VARWA secretary B.B. Ganesh, senior journalists V.V. Ramana Murthy, S. Siva Sankar, N. Nageswara Rao and J.P. Sharma were among those who spoke.
