Elders of the Koya and Konda Reddy tribes andrepresentatives of various tribal associations on Sunday formed a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to fight for a separate district headquarters at Rampachodavaram instead of Paderu in Visakhapatnam district.
The State government is creating a new districtcalled Alluri Sitharamaraju,headquartered inPaderu, which will be formed by carving out Chintoor and Rampachodavaram revenue divisionsfrom East Godavari district and the 11 Agency mandals of Araku Valley in Visakhapatnam district.
The JAC is headed by human rights activist Balu Akkisa, who is also convener of the Rampa Zilla Sadhana Samithi.
Mr. Balu stated that the State government’s idea of ‘administrative convenience’ to carve out a new district is not viable as far as the creation of Alluri Sitharamaraju district is concerned.
“In the Agency, demography should not be the lone criteria and geographical factors must also be taken into consideration,” Mr. Balu said.
The tribal elders and people from other walks of lifeopposed the proposalto declare Paderu the district headquarters, as it is nearly 300 km away from one side from Chintoor Agency. The present headquarters at Kakinada is only 90 km away.
Polavaram R&R
“We cannot afford to visit the district headquarters at Paderu anyway for our grievances. The district administration will soon become completely inaccessible for us,” said Vetla Vijaya, an active member of the Agency Girijana Sangam. A native of Konda Modalu Grama Panchayat, Ms. Vijaya’s family has been displaced from their habitation due to cofferdam works of the Polavaram project.
In Chintoor Agency, four mandals have merged from Telangana State to Andhra Pradesh to speed up the Polavaram project during the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh. The entire stretch of Koya society is being displaced from the Polavaram project. However, the displacers are now falling in the new district with many problems.
Illa Rami Reddy, Bondla Varaprasad of Adivasi Hakkula Sangham, Lakshma Reddy (CPI-ML), Kunjam Sidhu are a few key members of the JAC. They said they would intensify the demand for the new district headquarters at Rampachodavaram in the coming days.
