TN, K'taka border villages join 'united' struggle

CHITTOOR: The Samaikhya Andhra movement has spread its wings to the border villages of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with activists conducting rallies, dharnas, rasta rokos and protest demonstrations in support of united Andhra.
Though the people live in Chittoor district, a majority of them are Tamilians and Kannadigas settled here long time ago. Though they are not directly involved in the ongoing stir, the leaders and activists spearheading the movement have started wooing them as well in support of Samaikhya Andhra.Towards this end, posters and placards in Tamil and Kannada languages were printed to reach out to these sections in the border villages.
In fact, posters in Tamil -- "Telangana tani manilam vendam-Andhra manilalm orumaiyai pirikkadinge (We don't want separate Telangana. Please don't break AP)" -- have sprung up in the villages drawing the people's attention to the united Andhra movement. Not only the activists pasted the posters and placards on the train bogies en route to TN travelling up to Kanyakumari and Rameswaram, but they also saw to it that their multi-lingual campaign is spread to all corners of the district by tying the posters/placards to private jeeps, lorries and other vehicles.
Sources told TOI that activists of Ravuri Eswara Rao Yuva Sena alone has prepared 20,000 such posters. A sena activist S Sadasivam said they had decided to highlight that division is not the solution and that all the people are one. "We will distribute the posters in Vellore, North Arcad, Tiruvannamalai and Krishnagiri in TN focusing on unity," he said.
Sena leader Kesav Rao said everyone is blaming Union ministers P Chidambaram and M Veerappa Moily for hatching a conspiracy to divide AP. "When we don't have unity among ourselves, what's the point in blaming others. We will spread the unity message in Kolar, Bethamangalam, Guttahalle, Kamsandra areas of Karnataka also," he said.
Ex-TDP district vice-president Ravuri Eshwara Rao, the man behind the novel campaign, said bifurcation of the state is no solution to solve people's problems and neglect of a particular region. "The rulers should not take hasty decisions and put the unity of the state in jeopardy," he said.
He said tens of thousands of Tamilians and Kannadigas enter Chittoor district for pilgrimage, education and business purposes. "We cannot stop them from coming here on the grounds that they belong to other states. We must believe in cohesiveness to tackle larger issues," he observed. He said the Centre should not go ahead with the separate Telangana plan as it would spell AP's doom.
Meanwhile, in Krishnagiri district of TN, close to Kuppam constituency in Chittoor, the Tamilians raised a banner of revolt demanding separate state. They wanted their district to be merged under Greater Rayalaseema. "North Arcad districts of Tamil Nadu like Tiruvannamalai should also be merged into Greater Rayalaseema state," a leader not wanting to be named said.