Locals want Giddalur part of Nandhyal district

Giddalur : Ever since the government announced the reorganisation of districts in the state, the Giddalur public are demanding a new district with surrounding areas or include the region into Nandhyal district, which is nearer compared to Ongole in distance.

The locals, who are demanding a Giddalur district, have filed a public interest litigation (PIL)in the High Court long ago. PY Khan, one of the petitioners said that they have filed the PIL along with the advocate Moyinuddin from the Giddalur but no details are received on it after the death of the lawyer.

He explained that the Giddalur Assembly Constituency was in Kadapa district till the year 1850, and then included in Kurnool district. It is carved out from the Kurnool district in 1970 along with other backward areas from Guntur and Nellore districts to form the Ongole district.

All these times for more than 200 years, Khan said, Giddalur was at a far distance of nearly 150 km from the district headquarters. The district-level officials, taking advantage of the distance and time to reach Giddalur, has neglected the development and provision of infrastructure in the area. He said that the area is still deprived of medical, educational, and industrial facilities and the locals are forced to go to Kurnool or Guntur, spending hours even in emergencies.

He demanded that the government consider to include Giddalur taluk into Nandhyal for the administrative and development advantages of the area.

Advocate Bareddy Narayana Reddy said that the failure to complete 0.5 TMC capacity Gundlamotu project for nearly a half-century is just an example of the negligence faced by Giddalur in Prakasam district. He said that though Veligonda project will be completed by next year, Giddalur town will not get water from it, as it is not included in the project area. He said that if Giddalur is included in Nandhyal, then the government can easily link Gundlamotu to the Telugu Ganga canal and address the irrigation and drinking water issues in the area.

The other activists in the Giddalur taluk area say that Giddalur is a part of Nandhyal parliament constituency up to 2009 and it can be reattached to it if the government wants to reorganise the districts as per the parliamentary constituency limits and obliges the local demands for convenience.

They are demanding that the government include the region into Nandhyal district so that they can reach the district headquarters in one hour or make Giddalur a separate district with surrounding 13 mandals from the Prakasam and Kurnool districts.