Demand for demerger of five Telangana GPs merged with AP gains momentum

Kothagudem: The demand for demerger of five gram panchayats of Telangana merged with Andhra Pradesh at the time of bifurcation is gaining momentum once again.

Different political parties in Bhadrachalam took to the streets in support of their long-pending demand. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had also made a statement in the State Assembly in October last seeking demerger of the five gram panchayats (GPs).

Now the AP government’s proposed districts reorganisation has given a fillip to the demand. The five GPs which are now part of East Godavari district will be a part of the proposed Alluri Sitarama Raju district with Paderu as its district headquarters.

The residents in Gundala, Pichukalapadu, Kannaigudem, Yetapaka and Purushothapatnam GPs are not interested to be a part of the new district and want to rejoin Telangana. The reason is they will be far off from the new district headquarters and they have to travel over 250 km to reach Paderu if they had any official work there.

Gaddam Swamy, a resident of Rajupet in Yetapaka gram panchayat complained that the villagers are already facing a lot of problems. “We have no proper supply of water or electricity. Now the creation of Paderu district will make things even worse for us” he told Telangana Today.

Bhadrachalam MLA Podem Veeraiah appealed to the Chief Ministers of Telangana and AP to resolve the issue immediately by taking into consideration the concerns of the people in the five GPs. The demerger of the GPs will also help development of Bhadradri temple and Bhadrachalam town, he said.

In support of the demand, an all-party relay hunger strike is being staged in the town. Leaders of TRS, Congress, CPI, CPM and other peoples’ organisations are taking part in the protest demanding that the Centre table a bill in Parliament during the ongoing budget session.

The CPM also launched a postcard protest by writing letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the other hand the political parties have called for Bhadrachalam bandh on Feb 10 and to lay siege to the state borders on Feb 11.

“Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam at Bhadrachalam is considered South Ayodhya, the Central government has to immediately demerge the five GPs as it can help the temple’s development” CPI leader Muthyala Vishwanath said.

A senior Telangana activist, T Siddulu explained that the merger of the GPs severely affected Bhadrachalam temple town’s development. Bhadrachalam became an island confined to just a radius of three kilometres with river Godavari on one side and AP on the other three sides.