Srikrishna panel visits Kolaparru, Koppaka

The Justice Srikrishna Committee began its maiden consultations in West Godavari district on Wednesday with a visit to Kolaparru, a tiny village in Pedapadu mandal near here, and later by interacting with representatives of civil society organisations in Koppaka. 

 The Srikrishna panel  member Ranbir Singh, member-secretary Vinod K. Duggal, senior consultant Ravi Dhingra, State government's nodal officer Rajiv Sharma spent about 45 minutes with the villagers and tried to elicit the views of the villagers about the different dimensions of the demand for bifurcation of the State.

 The people explained the disadvantages that would accrue to coastal Andhra if the State was bifurcated. “There is no merit in the argument that Telangana region suffered injustice in terms of agriculture, irrigation and jobs. In fact, it is the coastal Andhra that suffered the most in all these aspects,” the  villagers  asserted.

 They  further  said that industrial development was concentrated heavily around Hyderabad to the disadvantage of coastal region. 

 Doing most of the questioning on behalf of the committee,  Duggal asked the villagers whether they had any relatives settled in Hyderabad and other districts of Telangana, whether they conveyed their apprehensions about the agitation, why there where no settlers from Telangana region in this part of the state and so on.

Later in  the  day  the panel reached  Eluru  and  interacted with representatives of political parties and civil society organisations at the  Guest House.