Prakasam Zilla Abhivriddhi Vedika formed

Created On: 21 Dec 2015 4:58 AM IST

Prakasam Zilla Abhivriddhi Vedika formed

To fight for the development of Prakasam district, which do not have enough opportunities in education, work and allegedly neglected by the government, a number of intellectuals, retired employees and social workers formed ‘Prakasam Zilla Abhivriddhi Vedika’ in Ongole on Sunday. The committee passed a resolution to demand the government to announce the district as backward district along with the already announced Rayalaseema and Uttarandhra region districts. The PJAV is formed with 29 members in committee including, retired RJD T Gopala Reddy as president, V Malakonda Reddy as general secretary, Tanniru Venkateswarlu, Mallikharjuna, V Venkata Rao, Madala Venkata Rao as vice-chairmen and D Rami Reddy, MLCs Vithapu Bala Subrahmanyam, Y Srinivasula Reddy and retired assistant joint collector Shamsher Ahmed as advisors.

In the formation meeting, MLC Vithapu Bala Subrahmanyam said, “As the district do not have a concrete force to question and demand the government about the needs and necessities of the district, it is neglected by the authorities and politicians for the past 45 years. Nearly about 4 lakh people are migrating to other districts and states as the district do not have enough opportunities of work and education. Being on top of the poor and backward districts in the coastal region, we are also the district which saw higher number of suicides of farmers. The government set up a university in Nellore district in rental buildings when the authorities failed to locate enough land for it, but it didn’t see the need of a university in the district even though 170 acres of land is readily available and allocated for the university by the district authorities. The state government is not keen to allot a single prestigious institute from dozens being announced by the Central government after bifurcation. This is all due to the district lacks a body or a politician to question the government on the demands from the district. The Prakasam Jilla Abhivriddhi Vedika should now start the questioning and as MLCs we would support the demands.”

MLC Y Srinivas Reddy said, “This is the district which faced discrimination by the rulers of the state. The drought condition is more severe in the district than the government announced. There is fluorosis problem in 43 of the total 56 mandals of the district. As the district is affected by drought and has large number of migrants, the school dropouts number is also high here. Beside making alternate arrangements for the students to rejoin the schools, the government closed 229 schools in the name of rationalization. The RIMS is no better than a general hospital in the district. There are about 250 vacancies including specialists, nurses, technical staff in labs and sanitary departments of the RIMS. But the government never cares to appoint them as there is no voice from the district. We should start demanding for the development of our district from here and fight for the realization of the promises made by the governments.” The committee members and advisors also expressed similar opinion on the government neglecting the district and passed a resolution to demand the state and Central governments to announce the Prakasam district as the eighth backward district in the state after Rayalaseema and Uttarandhra districts.