Rajampeta, located in the native district of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, continues to boil over what protestors call ‘unscientific and irrational’ carving out of Annamayya district with Rayachoti as headquarters.
Tallapaka in Rajampeta is the birthplace of saint poet Annamacharya, who sang compositions in favour of Lord Venkateswara. The very idea of naming the district after Annamayya was born here and the residents were jubilant when the name was announced, but their joy evaporated when the ‘relatively insignificant’ Rayachoti was named its headquarters.
The ‘skewed’ proposal invited people’s wrath more than it had brought laurels to the YSRC government. Similar protests have erupted from Madanapalle in Chittoor district, which also has a hoary past. Madanapalle and Rajampeta are the largest revenue sub-divisions in Chittoor and Kadapa districts respectively, but Rayachoti was chosen apparently in view of its central location and also to pacify criticism in the two major towns. However, the decision has evidently not gone down well with the public.
“Rajampeta has been a parliamentary constituency headquarters since inception, but it is not even a district headquarters today. We demand that the government remove this anomaly,” said TDP Rajampeta constituency in-charge B. Chengalrayudu, while leading a rally from the famed 108-ft tall Annamayya statue in Tallapaka on Sunday.
Residents, going beyond their political affiliation, laid siege to the 1.1 km-long Nandalur bridge, blocking traffic on the Tirupati-Kadapa highway. Similarly, people under the banner of Jana Sena burnt the effigy of Chief Minister at Ambedkar circle and shouted slogans ‘Rayachoti Voddhu, Rajampeta Muddu’.
YSR Congress MLA Meda Mallikarjun Reddy, who is down with COVID, told The Hindu over telephone that he would pursue the matter with the Chief Minister. “Personally, I want Rajampeta to be the headquarters, but we have to look into what led to the decision. Once I test negative for the virus, I will take it up,” he assured.
