KURNOOL: Bay of Bengal has come calling on interior Rayalaseema. It's incredible but true.
The arid Rayalaseema region would now claim credit to being a coastal region, blurring the historic injustices between the coastal and non-coastal districts in Andhra Pradesh state. This miracle was made possible with the reorganisation of districts, as Sri Balaji districts with Tirupati as headquarters have acquired a part of Nellore into its fold.
Four Assembly segments – Sarvepalli, Gudur, Sullurpet, and Venkatagiri – of Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency will fall under the proposed Tirupati district.
Rayalaseema also gets the Satish Dhawan Rocket Launch station and the Pulicat Lake too.
Sullurpet is 16km west of the world-famous ISRO island Sriharikota, from where India launches its rockets. Pulicat lake separates Sullurpeta and Sriharikota. It has an average elevation of 11 metres (36 feet).
Rayalaseema region, comprising four districts of Kurnool, Kadapa, Chittoor, and Anantapur, has been historically land-locked. The four districts have been reorganised into eight districts with Nandyal, Sri Annamayya Rayachoti, Sri Sathayasai Puttaparthy, and Sri Balaji Tirupati districts.
Rayalaseema gets a sea coast, an impossible task, yet made possible through the reorganisation of AP districts. Sri Balaji district with a chunk of Nellore’s geography added to it pulled off this miracle. Meanwhile, Nandyal’s clamour is that it be named after legendary leader PV Narasimha Rao.
Meanwhile, demands to name Kurnool district as Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy and Anantapur as Neelam Sanjva Reddy are growing.
The AP Reddy Welfare Association wants these two districts named after the Reddys. The Rayalaseema Saguneeti Sadhana Samithi (RSSS) has argued that the division of new districts was illogical and does not serve the purpose of farmers in Rayalaseema who depend upon river water for irrigation.
AP Brahman Welfare association has urged the government to name Nandyal district as PV Narasimha Rao Nandyal district. The daughter of PV, Surabhi Vani, is learnt to have sent a letter to Chief Minister Jagan, urging him to consider naming Nandyal after the former PM.
RSSS president Bojja Dasarath Reddy said Rayalaseema in its present form constitutes 40 per cent of the state in length and breadth. As such, the region needs more districts than were declared based on parliamentary constituencies. He said places like Madanapalle, Guntakal, and Adoni could be made districts.
