Minor irrigation minister T G Venkatesh on Saturday said that people of Rayalaseema would not agree for bifurcation of the region under any circumstances. Speaking to newsmen here on Saturday, he expressed concern over reports about the Congress high command thinking of creating Rayala-Telangana by merging Kurnool and Anantapur districts of Rayalaseema into Telangana to create the new state.
He said if Telangana was to be created, Rayalaseema state should also be created. Leaders like him who were still continuing to be integrationists had become weak as others appear to have compromised with the idea of state bifurcation, he lamented. Maintaining that the Congress leadership had not yet decided to create Telangana state, he said they were only talking about the future of Rayalaseema because of the fear that the state would be divided.
He said Rayalaseema had already lost Bellary to Karnataka and pointed that the region lost Tungabhadra water because of it. He said Seema was denied of even drinking water because of Bellary’s annexation to Karnataka. Venkatesh demanded that apart from Nellore and Prakasam districts of Seemandhra, Gadwal and Alampur constituencies of Telangana also should be merged with Rayalaseema to avoid water disputes.
Reminding that the leaders of Rayalaseema had joined with the leaders of the Seemandhra region in opposing state division by representing to all committees from the Pranab Mukherjee committee to the Justice Srikrishna committee, he lamented that there was no positive response from the Seemandhra people.