TDP MP K Rammohan Naidu celebrates Special birthday

New Delhi: Srikakulam TDP MP K Rammohan Naidu on Tuesday turned his birthday into a protest day at Parliament seeking Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh. Rajahmundry MP M Murali Mohan also sat with him on hunger strike in expression of solidarity with the cause.

This unique protest was sparked by the continuous refusal of the Modi Government to concede the demand of the AP people. The TDP MPs cheered him as he sat on a his "day's session long hunger strike" near Gandhi statue. The other colleagues of Naidu continued their protest both inside and outside Parliament raising slogans and displaying placards seeking the special status.

Meanwhile, the Centre once again clarified to TDP MP K Kanakamedala Ravindrakumar, in the Rajya Sabha, on Tuesday that SCS was not possible for AP as the 14th Finance Commission ruled it out. It was in reply to a question by the MP to the effect.

Rammohan Naidu and Murali Mohan called off their hunger strike after the session was adjourned when former Union Minister P Ashok Gajapati Raju offered them lemon juice.

Rammohan Naidu, speaking to media person on the occasion, said that leaders of several parties had visited them expressed their solidarity with them.

He said: "Our demands are not new. We had the same demands when we were in NDA and they remain the same even after we broke away from it. The responsibility of keeping the promises, including conferring Special Category Status on AP rests on Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

Rammohan Naidu said that the Centre has no defence for various issues dogging the country. "The prime minister is not in a position to come out with a reply when the Opposition demanded constitution of a joint parliamentary probe in to the Rafael deal," he said.

The MP pointed out that the Centre had no information to share with the people as to how much black money it unearthed by demonetising high-value currency notes. "The agriculture sector is in distress. Modi has no answer for the questions the opposition has," he said.

He demanded that the Prime Minister should go in for general elections only after answering the questions that the people were raising across the country. Referring to the injustice meted out to the state, he said that the state had fought with the Centre in all possible ways and yet it remained callous.

"We want what is due to the state from the Centre. We will continue to fight with the Centre until all our demands are met. Railway Zone for AP with Visakhapatnam as headquarters and grants for backward districts are among the many demands that the state had been making," he said.