Political parties on Friday condemned the NDA government over its failure to announce a new railway zone for Andhra Pradesh with its headquarters in Visakhapatnam.
Visakha Railway Zone Sadhana Samithi convener and CPI State Assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy said that Visakhapatnam fulfilled all the criteria for being declared as a separate railway zone.
‘BJP worried’
“Visakhapatnam has all the required railway infrastructure and assets to be established as the headquarters of a separate railway zone. Waltair Division was one of the top revenue-earning divisions in the country,” Mr. Murthy said.
“The Centre is not granting a separate railway zone as it is of the mindset that it would not gain any votes in the upcoming elections even if it went ahead with the decision. It is worried that the TDP will take all the credit for the formation of a separate zone and that the BJP will not get any public support at the eleventh hour,” Mr. Murthy said.
He added that formation of a railway zone was a political decision and said the political will was lacking.
‘Big disappointment’
CPI-M State secretariat member Ch. Narasinga Rao described the lack of announcement on the railway zone as a ‘big disappointment’ to the people of AP. He said that Mr. Haribabu was trying to still ‘cheat the people’ by saying there was still time to declare a separate zone. He described it as a ‘great betrayal’ to AP.
Visakhapatnam North MLA Vishnu Kumar Raju said the railway zone cannot be linked with the budget as it was a ‘political decision’. BJP city president M. Nagendra concurred with Mr. Raju.
