Ex-BJP leader asks Amit Shah for demerger of villages, plan for Bhadradri development

Merger of seven mandals in the district had a negative impact on the development of Bhadrachalam which was left fragmented.

Kothagudem: Former BJP leader Jitta Balakrishna Reddy, who was expelled from the party, has demanded union Home Minister Amit Shah to make efforts to demerge Telangana villages that were earlier merged with Andhra Pradesh.

He said the five villages of Gundala, Purushothapatnam, Pichukalapadu, Kannaigudem and Yetapaka that were merged with Andhra Pradesh should be given back to Telangana for the development of the temple town Bhadrachalam in the district.

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Merger of seven mandals in the district had a negative impact on the development of Bhadrachalam which was left fragmented. Due to the lack of government land, there was no place for a dumping yard to dump the garbage, he said in a statement here on Saturday.

The BJP government, which plays politics in the name of god has been neglecting Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam, which was known as the Ayodhya of the South. Bhadrachalam would be developed into a spiritual centre if the five villages were given to Telangana, he said.

The demerger of the five villages would help to get 900 acres of the temple land at Purushothapatnam. Even though union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy was from Telangana and the BJP was in power for two terms at the Centre, the BJP government was showing a step-motherly attitude towards development of Bhadrachalam, Balakrishna Reddy said.

He further said that the BJP government, which claims to be uniting the country by improving the rail network all over the country, was acting indifferently in connecting Bhadrachalam with the rail network. Similarly the Centre had failed to establish a Tribal University at Bhadrachalam.

Balakrishna Reddy noted that when he merged his Yuva Telangana Party with BJP and on several occasions thereafter he asked former BJP state president, MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, to put pressure on the Centre to take the initiative to develop Bhadrachalam, nothing was done.

He demanded that Amit Shah, who was scheduled to visit Khammam on Sunday, to understand the significance of Bhadradri temple and announce an action plan immediately for development of the temple.