Dasa Disa - Nellore for special status

​Nellore: Dasa Disa programme organised by HMTV on Saturday witnessed striking reaction from the participants who unconditionally demanded for special status to the state.

Even as Telugu Desam and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders expressed different versions on awarding the status they faced heat from the sections of various political parties and common people.

Expressing its stance on the special status issue, the Congress party diverted the issue stating that Telugu Desam in state and BJP at the centre are responsible for achieving. Speakers condemned the observations of Union minister Venkaiah Naidu on the special status. Naidu had said that there was a need for special packages rather than the special status.

Initiating the debate, District Congress president Dr Panabaka Krishnaiah said that political parties expressed their willingness for state bifurcation and they finally made congress a scapegoat on the issue.

Though the status was not included in the AP Reorganization Act former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh promised it in the Rajya Sabha and the BJP had demanded for special status for 5 year to 10 years.

MLC Vakati Narayana Reddy explained the necessity for the status. He said that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his ministerial colleagues were using their good offices to press for special status given the alliance there are in with NDA government.

There was a huge debate on comments of BJP state general secretary S Suresh Reddy, who asked what benefits would special status give to the state.

He said that the 14th finance commission had also not recommended it. The Centre was committed to provide more funds even though the state lacks special status. There was no relationship between employment opportunities and industrial sops with the status, he said.

This attracted huge resentment from the participants. At one point of time, BJP senior leader tried to leave the event and finally changed his version and said they were having no second thought on achieving special status. Representative of YSRCP Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy and CPI(M) leader Dr Ankaiah also expressed their demand for the status along with major chunk of funding.

Problems of the district such as frequent earthquakes, fluoride problem, health issues and other local problems were also discussed at length.

Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy and former ZP Chairman P Chenchal Babu Yadav tried to explain their difficulty in resolving these problems with limited funds available at Zilla Parishad. They sought support from Venkaiah Naidu and the state government for providing safe drinking water.

MLC V Narayana Reddy said the state government had started NTR Sujala Sravanthi programme for such issues. Dr E Sudhakar explained about reasons for increasing number of diabetes cases in the district. He attributed it to the changing lifestyle and food habits. But, some women participants questioned even daily labourers were also being affected by the disease and asked for reasons for the disease.

Venkatagiri Municipal Chairperson D Sarada, Aam Aadmi party leader Vinod Kumar, Loksatta leader Sridhar, Poura Hakkula Sangham leader Y Venkateswarlu, fisheries college official Dr Haribabu and others were present. The programme was moderated by HMTV Chief Editor, Debates and Discussions P Venkata Krishna.