Minister urges Centre, CMs of Telugu States to demerge five Telangana villages

Telangana Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao has urged the Centre and the CMs of both Telugu States to demerge five Telangana villages merged with Andhra Pradesh in 2014, citing administrative, developmental, and law and order challenges.

Kothagudem: Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao has appealed to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to demerge five villages of Telangana that were merged into Andhra Pradesh after reorganisation of AP in 2014.

He also wrote letters to Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, N Chandrababu Naidu and A Revanth Reddy in this regard. In the wake of the reorganisation of districts in Andhra Pradesh, the five villages – Yatapaka, Kannaigudem, Pichukalapadu, Purushottapatnam and Gundala adjacent to Bhadrachalam town should be merged with Telangana, he said.

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Nageswara Rao urged the Centre to consider the issue positively. The people of these villages, especially tribal families, depend on Bhadrachalam for their needs like health, education and transport.

However, with the change in the State boundary, the people are being troubled by inter-State checks for every small task, delays in medical emergencies, difficulties in reaching schools and hostels, and confusion over jurisdiction in development works, he noted.

Since the area is a sensitive area in view of left wing extremism (LWE), the challenges have increased for the two States in law and order coordination. It would be better if the villages are merged with Telangana for administrative convenience, he felt.

The famous Sri Seetharamachandra Swamy Devasthanam at Bhadrachalam is in Telangana, but the temple lands are in Purushothapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, which is causing complications in maintaining records, administration and development plans. The temple would be developed if the villages are merged with Telangana, Nageswara Rao said.