Farmers, joined by activists of opposition parties and civil society organisations, held a massive protest march demanding that Amaravati be retained as the one and only capital of the State.
The sloganeering protesters arrived on tractors, bullock carts and other modes of transport from the Old Bypass road junction on the arterial Kurnool road during the ‘Mahapadayatra’ demanding shelving of the decentralised capital model of the YSRCP government.
Without standing on prestige, Chief Minister Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy should concede the one and only demand of the farmers agitating for the cause for the last one year, said TDP Ongole Lok Sabha unit president N.Balaji while addressing the protesters at the Church Centre which witnessed a traffic jam for hours.
Unlike Hyderabad and Chennai, Amaravati did not witness such a natural calamity when rains lashed the southern States, pointed out Rationalist Association leader N.Venkata Subbaiah.
The government should not ignore the fact that farmers hailing from Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes had also sacrificed their precious land for the capital, said ‘Poura Samajam’ district president G.Narasimha Rao.
Communist Party of India Prakasam district secretary M.L.Narayana gave a call to the activists to gear up for upcoming ‘Amaravati Chalo’ programme to mark one year of the stir.
People of the State were now perplexed over the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had vowed to make Amaravati a capital much greater than the national capital, said Congress party farmers wing State vice-president V. Rajagopala Reddy.