People of five panchayats in AP want to merge with TS

Bhadrachalam: All political parties have demanded the Andhra Pradesh government to merge five gram panchayats of the State with Telangna. Extending support to the demand the representatives of CPI, CPM, TDP, Congress, New Democracy and Dalit Sangam join the protest staged by the residents of five gram panchayats Kannayagudem, Yetpaka, Gundala, Pichukulapadu and Gundala.

The issue cropped up now because the Andhra Pradesh government is planning to carve new district in the State and recently released a notification in this regard.

The five panchyats which are now part of East Godavari district, but after the notification, the five panchyats will be merged in new district of Paderu.

But the people of five panchyats are not interested to be the part of new Paderu district. They are more interested in merging of their panchayats with the Telangana State as they very near to Bhadrachalam mandal. According to them, it will be convenient for them to be part of Telangana rather than being in the new district of Andhra Pradesh. If these five panchayats are merged in Paderu district, the residents of these panchayats will have to travel a distance of400 km to the district headquarters.

The people appealed to the AP government give away to these panchayats to Telangana for their benefit. To press their demanded the residents of these panchayats staged protest in Bhadrachalam on Monday.

They said they are not interested in living in Andhra Pradesh as they will have to travel long distance for small works. On the other side, all parties of Telangana in the Bhadrachalam supporting their protest. The CPI started relay hunger strike and planned a Bhadrachalam bandh programme.

Bhadrachalam MLA Podem Veeraiah appealed to the both Chief Ministers to resolve the five panchyat issue. He said the people in the five panchyats are not willing to continue in A P State, so immediately merge the five panchyats with the TS.

He said the Lord Rama temple lands of 1000 acres of Purushothapatnam panchyat, the temple a also getting heavy loss and stopped the development here no land in the TS. He said if the five panchyats are not merged in the Telangna, the Congress party will organise a huge protest to address the issue.

CPI State leader Ravulapalli Ramprasad while speaking here demanded the government to merge five panchayats with Telangana. He said the AP government is planning to establish new districts. It will be very difficult people in the district headquarters due to huge distances. The five panchayats which lie on the border of AP are not developed so the government should agree to the people's appeal and merge the panchayats with them with TS.

CPM State leader AJ Ramesh said, the party started post card protest to AP demanding the people issue of five panchyats. The party is supporting the protest of five panchyats' people and demanded to merge five panchayats with Telangana.