Activists of the Telugu Desam Party pressed their demand for a new district with Markapur as its headquarters and symbolically submitted a petition in this regard to a statue of Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary, in Kanigiri on Sunday.
The activists, led by former MLA Ugra Narasimha Reddy, who gathered near a statue near the Kanyaka Parameswari temple, said the backward western parts of the district would see development only when a separate district was formed comprising Kanigiri, Markapur, Yerragondapalem and Giddalur Assembly segments. They went in a big procession to the Tehsildar office and symbolically submitted a petition to another Bapuji statue there.
Meanwhile, TDP MLAs Gottipatti Ravikumar, Dola Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy and Yeluri Sambasiva Rao from Prakasam district dubbed “unscientific” the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s decision to create Bapatla district by clubbing with it three Assembly segments of Addanki, Parchur and Chirala, and reuniting Kandukur revenue division with SPSR Nellore district.
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Prakasam district, formed by drawing the backward parts of Nellore, Kurnool and Guntur districts in 1970, had not seen any meaningful development in the last five decades, they said. Two districts, one with Ongole as headquarters and another with Markapur as headquarters should be created and on no account the Assembly segments in Prakasam district should be clubbed with regions in Guntur or SPSR Nellore districts, they added.