Union Ministers from Seemandhra, who met at the residence of Textiles Minister Kavuri Sambasiva Rao on Tuesday, prepared a 16-page memorandum to be submitted to the Group of Ministers on Telangana.
Among other things, they sought union territory status for Hyderabad and felt a Rayala-Telangana State could be created if the people of Kurnool and Anantapur districts agree to it. They also sought protection of pre-1956 Andhra geography. The ministers are planning to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and seek their intervention to ensure justice to Seemandhra, if division is inevitable. However, it hasn’t been finalised yet.
Sources said the ministers also demanded national project status for the Polavaram Project, an IIT and an IIM for Seemandhra, a huge financial package for the development of a new capital for Andhra between Vijayawada and Guntur besides packages for development of backward regions in North Andhra and Telangana districts.
The ministers also sought allocation of river waters of Krishna to Andhra even before the State is divided and execution of Pulichintala and Polavaram projects on time. In addition, they wanted upgradation of the Vijayawada Airport to international standards and location of IT Infrastructure Regions in the two regions of Seemandhra, industrial corridors, and transfer of portion of revenue of Hyderabad on the basis of population of Seemandhra region.
The Union Ministers, who attended the meeting, included MM Pallam Raju, D Purnadeswari, Panabaka Lakshmi, Killi Krupa Rani and JD Seelam.
source: The New Indian Express
Post a Comment