After playing an active role in the YSR Congress party for quite some time before he was expelled for defying party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, former minister Konathala Ramakrishna has become a virtual political non-entity.
There were reports that he had made attempts to join the Telugu Desam Party, but somehow he did not succeed.
After that, Konathala has been spending time in the name of Uttarandhra Development Forum and dashing of letters to the Chandrababu Naidu government and also the Centre on issues concerning north coastal Andhra. Sometimes, he sounds like attacking the Naidu government and some other time, he appears to be going soft.
On Sunday, Konathala wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the Centre extend a financial assistance of Rs 15,000 crore for development of north Andhra which was promised in the bifurcation Act.
He recalled that the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh when the Reorganisation Bill was passed assured the Rajya Sabha, that the Bill already provided for a special development package for the backward regions of the successor state of Andhra Pradesh, in particular for the districts of Rayalaseema and North Coastal Andhra Pradesh.
He reminded that the development package was promised to be on the lines of the K-B-K (Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi) Special Plan in Odisha and the Bundelkhand special package in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. However, only Rs 50 crore per year for each district was released in the last three years, he regretted.
He also wanted setting up of an Autonomous Council for Uttar andhra on the lines of the ones set up for the North East states.
Konathala also sought immediate establishment of the separate railway zone with Visakhapatnam as headquarters, the Metro rail project, Tribal University, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and captive mines for the Visakhapatnam steel plant which would go a long way in the development of north Andhra.
