An all-party meeting here on Sunday demanded the formation of a separate district with Markapur as its headquarters.
The Markapur division was part of Kurnool district in Rayalaseema before it was merged into Prakasam district and remained backward all these years.
Only by forming a separate Markapur district, the western parts of Prakasam district would see development, said members of various parties at a meeting presided over by Markapur Press Club president L.V.Ramana.
The district should be named after the Veligonda project, the lifeline of western Prakasam. The project should be completed before the district was carved out, they said.
Those who spoke at the meeting included YSR Congress Party Ongole unit convenor Ch.Balamuralikrishna, Telugu Desam Party traders’ wing president V.Mallikarjuna, Bharatiya Janata Party Markapur Assembly Constituency convenor P.V.Krishna Rao, Communist Party of India State Council member A.Nasaraiah, CPI(Marxist) Markapur division secretary D.Somayya, B.C.Jana Sabha State general secretary P.C.P.Yadav, Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti State secretary D.Kasi Rao and NGOs’ Association president B.V.S.Sastry.
Signature campaign
With the new government sending out a signal that 13 districts of the State may be divided into another 25 based on Parliamentary Constituency geographical limits, the demand for creating a new district gathered steam in several places in the Hindupur Parliamentary constituency in Anantapur district. Penukonda Zilla Sadhana Samithi on Sunday launched a signature campaign to press for the formation of a new district. The Samithi’s members Raoof, Narahari Prasad and Paluri Krishnamurthy garlanded the statue of B.R. Ambedkar in Penukonda, before setting out seeking signatures for their campaign. They also collected signatures at the Telugu Thalli Centre in Penukonda. Moreover, with Penukonda MLA M. Sankara Narayana getting a cabinet berth in Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government, people hope the B.C. Welfare Minister could raise the demand for a district with Penukonda as its headquarters.