Demand to Make Gudur District or Merge It with Nellore Gains Speed

Nellore: A strong demand has been raised by the people of Gudur to either declare it as a separate district or merge it into the neighbouring Nellore district, citing administrative convenience and long-standing public appeals.

On Tuesday, local residents—including walkers and sportspersons—held a rally in Gudur to highlight the issue. The protestors reminded the government of the pre-election promise made by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, minister Nara Lokesh, and MLA Balakrishna that Gudur would be merged into Nellore district.

With the coalition government now actively fulfilling its commitments, the participants urged swift action. They pointed out that when the local MLA raised the issue in the state Assembly, Lokesh responded positively, suggesting that the idea has support at the highest levels.

The protestors stressed that Gudur is already home to key infrastructure such as a railway junction, revenue division, and a thriving lemon market. Nearby Chillakur Mandal is also emerging as an industrial hub. These features fulfill all requirements to be a district.

Presently, residents travel over 100 km to Tirupati to meet senior officials, which costs both time and money. Merging Gudur into Nellore, which is only 35 km away, would make access to government services much easier.

As an alternative, they proposed forming a new district with Gudur, Naidupeta, Venkatagiri, and Sarvepalli included. They urged the local MLA P. Suneel Kumar to push this proposal forward with the Chief Minister and minister Lokesh.

The rally saw participation from several individuals and community members including Veguru Rajendra Prasad, P.V.K. Sharma, Suman Reddy, Koteshwara Rao, Mastan, Sai, Munif, Shashidhar, Mobile Raja, Prasad, Chinnaraju, Rajinikanth, Haggayya, Sandeep, Imran, and others from local sports associations and walkers’ groups.