VIJAYAWADA: With the Union government likely to take a policy decision “to keep the name of airport after the name of the main city it serves”, the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is seeing red, as it thinks it is a ploy of the Central government not to “fulfil all the promises given to the State” and to show disrespect to the sentiments of the people of Andhra. It is a known fact that the Andhra Pradesh State Cabinet gave a nod to renaming of the Gannavaram Airport as Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao-Amaravati Airport and Tirupati Airport as Sri Venkateswara Airport. However, the plan to rename the airports may never be executed if the Central government’s new draft policy on naming and renaming airports is implemented. According to the policy, the airports will not be named after any person. This has infuriated the TDP leaders, who are alleging that BJP is playing tricks.
The State Cabinet approved the proposals to rename the Vijayawada Airport and the Tirupati Airport early this month. During the Aviation Summit held here in Vijayawada city early this year, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu requested the then Union Minister for Civil Aviation P Ashok Gajapathi Raju to name the Vijayawada Airport after NT Rama Rao and Amaravati and the Union minister had agreed.
In the on going Rajya Sabha session, a question was posed, by the TDP MP CM Ramesh, regarding the renaming of the Vijayawada airport, to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Giving answer to the question, the Minister of State in the ministry, Jayant Sinha, said that the State government had submitted a letter in April 2017, stating that it had adopted a policy to change the names of the airports. “Ministry of Civil Aviation has formulated draft policy guidelines on naming/renaming of airports, which clearly indicates to keep the name of airport after the name of the main city it serves,” he said. Jayant Sinha further said that the draft policy guidelines had been sent for inter-ministerial consultation and the decision on renaming of Vijayawada Airport depended on the finalisation of the policy.
This has made the TDP leaders furious and they are alleging that the BJP is failing to fulfil all the promises given to the State and are not respecting the sentiments of the Andhra people.Speaking to TNIE, K Pattabhi Ram,TDP Vijayawada urban committee general secretary said, “The BJP government is on a mission to act against the people’s sentiments in Andhra Pradesh. The policy is still in the draft stage and how long would they put this on hold. “They will also have to clearly specify what will happen to airports already named after famous personalities. In case, they do not accept our proposal to rename the airports, we will certainly go for an agitation”.