APCC Launches "Soil Satyagraha" For Special Status

The AP Congress Committee today launched a "Soil Satyagraha" against the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for not granting Special Status to residuary Andhra Pradesh during the foundation-laying ceremony for the proposed new capital Amaravathi.

APCC president and former minister N Raghuveera Reddy conducted the "satyagraha" at his native Madakasira village in the Anantapur district.

The program was aimed at sending soil and water collected from all villages, municipalities and sacred places of the State to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He demanded that the Prime Minister honour all the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act.

Reddy later sent through courier, his letter along with some others written by the sarpanches of two villages in his constituency, to Modi.

In the letter, the Congress leader sought the implementation of all the promises made in the APR Act and an immediate declaration of Special Status.

"We don't want Ralla (stones) Seema and Uthi (waste) Andhra, and instead need a Rs 24,000-crore package for their development," Reddy stated.

Referring to the APSRTC bus charges hike, the APCC president expressed displeasure. Seeking an immediate rollback of the charges, Reddy sought to know how the government was increasing the fares at a time when the diesel prices came down.

And in a novel protest against the Centre for not granting special status, Reddy and other senior AP Congress leaders will appeal to the commuters traveling by train from Secunderabad to Patna on October 25 to defeat the BJP and NDA candidates in the ongoing Bihar elections.