KARIMNAGAR: The demand to form a new district and name it after former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao has resurfaced with the Joint Action Committee (JAC), which originally fought for this cause, deciding to launch a fresh movement over the issue.
The JAC’s decision gains significance as it comes ahead of Assembly elections in the State. In the past, the JAC leaders staged hunger strikes, demanding that the State government name a district after the former PM. Narasimha Rao hailed from Vangara village of Bheemadevarpalle Mandal, which was previously under Karimnagar district but was later merged in Hanamkonda district. His political career, however, started in Manthani, the constituency he represented in the Assembly between 1957 and 1977.
In 1990, the National Students’ Union of India activists demanded that Manthani be upgraded into a district and named after Narasimha Rao. After the formation of Telangana when Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao took a decision to create new districts, the JAC leaders demanded that Huzurabad be developed PV Narasimha Rao district. They staged several protests, with this demand, between 2016 and 2020.
Ravinder, a member of the JAC, alleges that the then minister Eatala Rajender, Rajaya Sabha member Capt V Laxmikantha Rao, and TS Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar failed to bring the matter to the notice of KCR. During the Huzurabad byelection held in 2021, propaganda was carried out indicating that the government was planning to announce Huzurabad as a PV district. However, the government didn’t take any decision to this effect.
Now that the State is gearing for the Assembly elections, the JAC is reiterating its demand for Huzurabad to be upgraded as PV Narasimha Rao district, comprising mandals like Elkathurthy, Bheemadevarpalle and Kamalapur (now in Hanumakonda district) Jammikuknta, Veenavanka, Illandakunta, Huzurabad, Venkapalli Saidapur and Shankarapatrnam (Karimnagar district), Mogullapalli and Tekumatla (Jayashankar-Bhupalpally district).