Bureaucrat-turned-politician V.V. Lakshminarayana lent his support to the farmers’ demand for retaining Amaravati as the sole capital of the State as the maha padayatra resumed from Puttamraju Kandriga, near Gudur, in SPSR Nellore district on the 35th day on Sunday.
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The uncertainty following the YSR Congress Party Government’s capital trifurcation decision drove away industries to other States, he said, while walking for some distance along with a group of 157 farmers led by Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti convenor A.Siva Reddy.
Captains of industry and trade who had firmed up proposals to set up their units in Andhra Pradesh now preferred Hyderabad or Bengaluru for their expansion plans, he lamented.
He lauded the farmers for generously parting with their land to the State when the Government projected a world-class capital.
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“No mean motive can be attributed to the selfless sacrifice of the farmers who envisaged Amaravati as a growth engine of the State,” he opined.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy Government should give a push to Amaravati-centric development even while promoting industries in each and every district in the State, he added.
A group of residents from Chennai donated ₹7 lakh to the farmers on the occasion, while some presented new saris to women farmers, near Balayapalli village.
Farmers from G. Konduru, near Mylavaram in Krishna district, distributed rice bags and vegetables as their counterparts from Amaravati pitched their tent at Vengamampuram village for night halt after covering a distance of 13 km.