Cutting across political ideologies, people from all walks of public life have intensified their attempts to mount pressure on the political parties to create a new district comprising Polavaram and Rampachodavaram Assembly constituencies with headquarters at Polavaram. At present, Rampachodavaram falls in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district and Polavaram falls in the Eluru district.
In 2022, the ruling YSR Congress party had ignored a similar movement that fought for the creation of a separate district headquartered at Rampachodavaram during the exercise of creating new districts in Andhra Pradesh.
A month ago, many civil society representatives formed Polavaram Zilla Sadhana Samithi (PZSS) and intensified their activities to garner support from the tribals of Rampachodavaram and Polavaram.
Speaking to The Hindu, Polavaram-based PZSS active member S. Rajasekhar Babu has said, “We have decided to mount pressure on the political parties in the fray in the general elections in 2024 to get a promise for the creation of a new district to be headquartered at Polavaram. We are fighting to get an assurance from the political parties ahead of the elections.”
The PZSS members on Friday submitted a memorandum to Polavaram MLA Tellam Balaraju to extend his support for their demand. Responding to their appeal, Mr. Balaraju has assured to apprise the Chief Minister of the need to create a new district. On February 20, the PZSS gave a call for ‘Vanta-Varpu’ on the banks of river Godavari in Polavaram to create awareness on the action plan of the movement.
Ahead of the general elections, the prime challenge of the Polavaram Zilla Sadhana Samithi is to bring all the tribes of the Godavari Agency and Polavaram-displaced families together on the demand.
