Andhra Pradesh Congress will organize dharnas for three days in New Delhi demanding the special status to Andhra Pradesh as promised at the time of passage of AP Reorganization Act.2014. This has been decided in a meeting the APCC president N Raghuvira Reddy and other state Congress leaders had with AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi to day in New Delhi. The party will also submit a memorandum with one crore signatures to the President and Prime Minister. The party called upon the people to participate in the Chalo Delhi program in a big way.
Rahul Gandhi released a poster related to the program. Besides Raghuvira, Rajya Sabha members K V P Ramachandra Rao, Jairam Ramesh, JD Seelam, AICC SC cell chairman K Raju and state Congress leader Gidugu Rudraraju were present in the meeting.The poster says special status is the right of Andhras and demands the implementation of the AP Reorganization Act.2014 in toto.
Revealing the party decision , Raghuvira said the Dharna would begin on March 12 and AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi would lead the dharna. He said the AP Congress would seek appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to present him Andhra soil and water in reciprocation to his gesture on the day of laying foundation stone for the new capital Amaravati.
He wondered as to how the union government totally ignore the pending issue of special status in the budget 2016-17. Dubbing Modi- Chandrababu as the conspiratorial combination, he said they were sacrificing the state interests for the sake of their own political interests. He said center should offer Rs 5 lakh crore as compensation for agreeing the division of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Rahul is said to have assured the APCC president that he would take up the issue with central government and raise the matter in the parliament as well. It was Rahul Gandhi who revived the Special Status issue during his visit to Anantapur district last year.
APCC is also demanding immediate release of Rs 15,000 crore for the Polavaram project, Special package as announced in the Act for four Rayalaseema districts and three north coastal Andhra, release of funds to bridge the revenue loss the state suffered following the division of Andhra Pradesh and the implementation of all other provisions of AP Reorganization Act.2014
