Andhra Pradesh unit of the Communist Party of India (CPI) demanded that both state and central governments must provide "assured water" to eradicate drought permanently in the Rayalaseema region.
A two-day seminar organised by the CPI on Rayalaseema related issues at Kadapa urged political parties and both state and central governments to give top priority to resolve Rayalaseema's severe drinking and irrigation water problems.
The party recalled that during the last 14 years, drought prevailed for 11 years in the region and urged governments to recognise it as a national calamity and resolve this perennial problem.
If AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who hails from Rayalaseema region, continues to prioritise Amaravathi in the name of world class capital city, it will surely lead to another separatist agitation in this neglected drought region of the newly formed Andhra Pradesh state, the party seminar warned.
Rayalaseema people feel suffocated and will surely agitate to protect their legitimate rights if the government continues to neglect the region the CPI said, adding that AP CM Chandrababu Naidu, would be the cause for any such separatist thoughts.
The party recalled that centralised development around Hyderabad was the main cause for the separate Telangana agitation.
Earlier governments neglected other regions to develop Hyderabad and injustice was done to Rayalaseema region. The same thing is being done by the present TDP government in the new state, the CPI said.
The party urged the AP CM to either impress or fight with the central government, to implement major demands like special status to AP, special package to Rayalaseema and North Andhra Pradesh, steel factory at Kadapa and sufficient fund for the state development.
The two-day party seminar decided to build the Rayalaseema agitation from the grassroot level, CPI district secretary said.
