Transport Minister Sidda Raghava Rao on Friday said no stone would be left unturned to get special category status (SCS) for the State.
“The Chief Minister is in constant touch with the Prime Minister and other Union Ministers for SCS and financial support to overcome bifurcation blues. I am confident that our effort to get SCS will fructify soon,” he said at a programme at Chimakurthy near here on Friday.
“It is unfortunate that those who have kept quiet at the time of the passage of the AP State Reorganisation Bill by the Lok Sabha in an undemocratic manner amid television blackout and sealing of doors and galleries in the lower house, are now agitating with ulterior political motives,” he said, adding that non-inclusion of SCS in the State Reorganisation Bill was responsible for the present imbroglio.
Speaking on the occasion, TDP central committee vice-president Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy exhorted the media to strengthen the hands of the Chief Minister in developing Navya Andhra from the scratch.
Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) State general secretary I.V. Subba Rao said: “There is an urgent need for both the ruling and Opposition parties to exert pressure on the Centre in their own way to honour the commitment made by latter on the floor of the Rajya Sabha at the time of bifurcation.” He also exhorted media personnel to take part in the ongoing Left party-sponsored Padayatra from Anantapur to Srikakulam to press for SCS and said no other benefit could be greater than special category status to the beleaguered State. “The media should play a greater role in shaping public opinion and mobilise all sections of people for a just cause,” he said.
