MLAs: If Telangana happens,merge Rayalaseema with it

T G Venkatesh,a Congress MLA from Kurnool,went a step further when he claimed that Rayalaseema MLAs would submit a proposal to the Srikrishna Committee seeking a special development package for four districts of the region: Kadapa,Kurnool,Anantapur and Chittor.

Claiming that Rayalaseema suffered as much injustice as Telangana,a Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) MLA from Allagadda,Shoba Reddy said Kurnool,which was capital of Andhra till October 1956,had to give up the status when Andhra and Telangana were merged and Hyderabad was made capital. “Everyone is talking of Andhra or Telangana. No one is thinking of Rayalaseema which has sacrificed so much. Once a separate Telangana state is formed,who is going to look after our interests if we don’t take it up now?” she asked.

Nandyal Congress MLA Shilpamohan Reddy also came up with a demand that the committee should be apprised of the irrigation and drinking water situation in Rayalaseema and that proposals on water-sharing arrangements should be discussed with the Committee to make it aware of the consequences that the region might face later.

However,members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) on Telangana released a statement that Rayalaseema leaders were trying to throw a spanner in the Telangana works. “They are unnecessarily making Rayalaseema an issue now that they know that a separate Telangana state is more or less a reality. Telangana and Rayalaseema are separate. There is no question of merger,” JAC convenor M Kodandaram said. “The issue came up for discussion at the JAC but we reject it outright. There is no question of merger with any other region.”

The Rayalaseema issue also divided the ministers in Chief Minister K Rosaiah’s Cabinet. Until now,13 ministers from Telangana and 15 from Andhra were at loggerheads over the separate state demand. Now,there are three distinct camps with the five ministers from Rayalaseema forming a separate group.