Non-local leaders blamed for Visakhapatnam being ignored in capital race

VISAKHAPATNAM: Reports of local MP and Union minister of state for commerce and industry Daggubati Purandeswari batting for Vijayawada or Ongole as the new capital of Seemandhra has left Vizagites feeling betrayed and outraged.
Many fear that this ‘incapacity’ of the leaders representing Vizag to speak for the city essentially stems from the lack of emotional connect as they are totally non-native to the region.What has irked Vizagites the most is that while the leaders of north coastal Andhra by and large have kept mum on the prospects of Vizag, leaders from central coastal AP have been aggressively campaigning for their cities.
Earlier in 1951, Justice Wangchoo report had mooted Vizag as the potential temporary capital but Vizag lost out then and people of the region fear the same could be the case yet again, what with many harping on the geographical centrality theme and rooting for Vijayawada or Ongole despite statistics proving that Vizag is the most important industrial city in Andhra Pradesh and the second largest in the state both in terms of extent and population. Vizag is also the most cosmopolitan socio-cultural hub in the Andhra and Rayalaseema areas and barring Hyderabad, is the only city in AP with some infrastructure to speak of.
However, much to the chagrin of the residents of Visakhapatnam, reports alleging that Purandeswari is rooting for Vijayawada as capital have been doing the rounds. Purandeswari, however, has denied this, saying: “I’m not batting for or backing a particular place. It is not for me to make the decision. However, I strongly feel that a capital should be accessible to everybody.”
Former MP T Subbarami Reddy, who is angling for the Visakhapatnam ticket, feels this is not the right time to talk about either Visakhapatnam or Vijayawada as capital. “The Samaikyandhra movement is still on and the people of Andhra are strongly against bifurcation. This is not the correct time to raise the issue.”
Lashing out harshly at the leadership of Visakhapatnam, C S Rao, one of the first batch of the Indian Economic Services and founder of NGO Praja Spandana said, “The non-local representatives of Visakhapatnam are the enemies of north coastal Andhra Pradesh. The people of the region have suffered severely and have been exploited by these non-local public representatives.” According to him, there is a need for a people’s movement to secure the rights of the people of the region.
Retired civil engineer and Vizag native P V R Narayana Murthy said, “Many of these politicians have strong business interests and know that to build a new capital at a place with hardly any infrastructure (Ongole has no infrastructure and Vijayawada has no proper airport) would require a great deal of money being pumped in apart from construction activity. But other than Hyderabad, Vizag is the only city in AP with international connectivity.”
The general public apart, leaders of standing from the region like Union minister V Kishore Chandra Deo too have accepted that the emotional disconnect of the leadership of Vizag is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently. The Araku MP had admitted to TOI earlier that if the state were to be bifurcated, Vizag must be made the capital and had pointed out that if geographical centrality were to be given prominence, then Jabalpur or Nagpur should have been the capital of India and not New Delhi.
S Shiva Shankar of the Uttarandhra Samrakshana Samithi feels that the Samaikyandhra movement led by certain cliques has done more damage to the reputation of Seemandhra people than anything else. Alleging that their motive is not to keep the state united, Shiva Shankar said, “The whole Samaikyandhra movement was a charade conducted by certain people from certain power centres. If we do not take up the issue of development of Uttarandhra and at least bat for Vizag as the capital, we will lose out as we have over the last 61 years and Vizag will again be nobody’s child.”
However, not all are worried as they feel Vizag is the most obvious choice. P Vishnu Kumar Raju, president, Rushikonda IT Park Association said, “Vizag has everything: it is a peaceful city with ports, international airport and is centrally located between Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad. More importantly, this is the only major industrial hub in all of Seemandhra. The people of the region have also been demanding a separate Vizag railway zone for quite a while. There can be no better choice than Vizag.”