Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday demanded that Eenadu Group former chairman Cherukuri Ramoji Rao be given Bharat Rathna. He should get Bharat Rathna along with N T Rama Rao, he said.

Addressing a memorial meeting of Ramoji Rao in Vijayawada, Chandrababu Naidu said that the government would name a road in Amaravati after Ramoji Rao. He further said that Ramoji Rao Chitra Nagar would come up in Visakhapatnam in the honour of Ramoji Rao.

He said that Ramoji Rao had suggested the name of Amaravati for the new capital. He explained how Ramoji Rao visualized Amaravati in the days to come. He said that he named the new capital as Amaravati only after Ramoji Rao’s suggestion. He said he would develop Amaravati as visualized by Ramoji Rao.

He said that Ramoji Rao had started the Eenadu paper and made it number 1 paper in the Telugu states for 40 years. Similarly, he started the TV channels and made them successful, Chandrababu Naidu said. He also recalled Ramoji Rao’s contribution in building Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, which had become the icon for the Telugu states.

Earlier, deputy chief minister and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan paid rich tributes to Ramoji Rao. He favoured installation of Ramoji Rao’s statue in Amaravati. He said he noticed journalistic values in Ramoji Rao’s words. He said he met Ramoji Rao for the first time in 2008 and he always thought about democracy and welfare of the Telugu states.

He also favoured that every decision taken by the government should be known to the people. He wanted the rulers to be answerable to the people. He criticized every government whenever they did a wrong thing, he said.

The Hindu former editor N Ram paid tributes to Ramoji Rao. He said that Ramoji as chairman of Editors Guild had opposed an Act brought by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Later, the Ramoji Rao Foundation donated Rs 25 crore to the government of Andhra Pradesh from its corporate social responsibility project.