The demand for the inclusion of the Nagari Assembly constituency into Sri Balaji district is slowly gaining momentum from all sections of public and political groups.
The Nagari and Puttur municipalities have already unanimously passed the resolution at the council meetings, submitting the same to the district administration. It is expected that all the 94 panchayats and 5 mandal parishads in the constituency would be completing the formality of submitting their resolutions in support of the merger with Sri Balaji district.
The Telugu Desam Party(TDP) cadres in the constituency have stepped up their agitation, demanding that Nagari MLA R.K. Roja insist on the constituency’s merger with Sri Balaji district. The TDP cadres had launched a campaign promoting a feeler among the public that the demand could be achieved provided Ms. Roja takes it up seriously, and, if required, even get ready to resign to her MLA post.
Though Ms. Roja had remained silent to the popular demand during the initial days of the notification, she too has turned active recently and met Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan in support of the demand.
Senior officials in Nagari and Chittoor observe that the chances of Nagari getting into Sri Balaji district were remote. However, a majority of the people in the constituency, spread over Nindra, Vijayapuram, Vadamalapeta, Puttur, and Nagari mandals, have over decades developed connections with Tirupati (the headquarters of Sri Balaji district). The public mostly relies upon Tirupati for business and health purposes.
Interestingly, the Nagari constituency comes under the purview of the Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) for layout approvals. All the five mandals are close to Tirupati, ranging from 10 to 50 kilometers.
Distance factor
While Vijayapuram, Vadamalapeta, Nagari, and Nindra are located 80 kilometers away from Chittoor, Puttur mandal is considered the nearest at 65 km, while the same mandal is just 30 km away from Tirupati. The public and traders of Nagari constituency mostly travel to Tirupati first, followed by Tiruttani, Arakkonam, and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, while holding negligible links with Chittoor, though its currently the district headquarters for 14 Assembly constituencies, which are proposed to be merged with Rayachoti, Sri Balaji and Chittoor districts.
All eyes on Roja
A senior TDP leader observed that in case the popular demand for Nagari’s inclusion into Tirupati fails, it would create a major political crisis for Ms. Roja. The TDP cadres further maintain that the present trifurcation of Chittoor district into three districts cutting into Nellore and Kadapa districts had already been meticulously planned with political equations.
“If the demand fails to materialise, it would be more beneficial to the TDP than to the ruling party,” he said. Coming to Ms. Roja, she continues to maintain stoic silence on the issue, while the development of municipalities, panchayats, and mandal parishads passing resolutions in favor of popular demand is reportedly attributed to Ms. Roja’s efforts.
The response from the officials is mixed. Many police personnel from the urban and rural circles of Puttur and Nagari maintain that it would be better for them to be part of Sri Balaji district rather than Chittoor, while the talk from the revenue and other key departments remains otherwise.
