Demand for separate district for Rampa grows louder

We will lose heavily if Araku is made headquarters, says MLA

A Konda Reddy tribal hamlet in Rampa agency in East Godavari district.

Public representatives and people from all walks of life in the Rampa Agency have intensified their efforts for the creation of a new district with Rampachodavaram as the headquarters and to convince the government to drop the proposal, if any, to merge the area which falls under the Assembly constituency with Araku.

The government recently launched the exercise to create new districts with parliamentary constituency as the unit.

Plea to CM

Rampachodavaram MLA N. Dhana Lakshmi, who met Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday, told

The Hindu that she told the Chief Minister that the constituency would suffer on all fronts if it is merged with the proposed district of Araku, about 290 km from here.

“Mr. Jagan promised to look into our request of creating a new district with 11 tribal mandals, sharing the border with the States of Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha, coming under its purview,” Ms. Dhana Lakshmi added.

If Araku is made the capital, it will take the people of Rampa at least half a day to reach it by road, and the prospect of the entire belt getting affected by left wing extremist activities cannot be ruled, the MLA said.

On Wednesday, Araku MP G. Madhavi drew the attention of senior party colleague V. Vijaya Sai Reddy to the problems in creating a new district under the administrative control of Araku.

The segment, with a population of above 3.5 lakhs, has two Integrated Tribal Development Agencies — at Rampachodavaram and Chintoor. The total voters are 2.6 lakh, including 1.35 lakh women. More than 60 % of the Assembly segment is in East Godavari district. The Papikonda National Park also falls in it.