Leaders and activists of the Left parties staging a protest in Visakhapatnam, on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: V. RAJU
Leaders of the Left parties called upon the people of Visakhapatnam and Andhra Pradesh to teach a lesson to the BJP government, which has cheated them by failing to honour the assurances given in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, like granting Special Category Status (SCS), special package to the backward districts of North Andhra and Rayalaseema, and operational of the South Coast Railway zone.
A rally was taken out by leaders and representatives of CPI(M), CPI, CIP-ML (New Democracy), from the DRM Office at Dondaparthy to the Gurajada statue, near the RTC Complex, on Sunday. The participants wearing black clothes and carrying black flags, raised slogans against the Union government for going back on the reorganisation promises.
CPI(M) State secretary V. Srinivasa Rao, CPI State assistant secretary JVSN Murthy, CPI-ML New Democracy State leader M. Lakshmi, and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Youth wing AP convener Ganesh alleged that the BJP government has done injustice to A.P. To add fuel to the fire, they were organising victory meeting to celebrate the completion of nine-year-rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They said that Home Minister Amit Shah has no right to set foot in Visakhapatnam, and demanded that he make a statement on withdrawal of the decision on strategic sale of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant(VSP).
They also demanded operationalisation of the Visakhapatnam-headquartered S Co R zone, sanction of funds for Polavaram, Tribal University, provision of remunerative prices to farmers as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, and withdrawal of the Labour Codes, which were detrimental to the interests of workers.
CPI(M) leader K. Lokanadham, Marupalli Pydiraju (CPI), M. Jaggunaidu (CPI-M), M. Lakshmi (CPI-ML), Sheetal (AAP), Corporator B. Ganga Rao Left party leaders SK Rehaman, P. Padma, A. Vimala, Kasireddy Satyanarayana and Y. Rambabu were among those who participated in the protest.