Violence in Andhra Pradesh: How Jagan Mohan Reddy’s plan to create new districts has panned out so far

Fierce violence and clashes broke out in Andhra Pradesh’s Amalapuram city on Tuesday over the renaming of the newly created Konaseema district after Dr BR Ambedkar.

Not happy with the government’s decision to change the name of the district, protesters set ablaze the house of ruling Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) MLA from Mummidivaram P Satish and also torched furniture kept outside Transport Minister P Viswarup’s home, the police said.

#WATCH | MLA Ponnada Satish's house was set on fire by protestors in Konaseema district in Andhra Pradesh today, the protests were opposing the naming of the district as Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema district pic.twitter.com/XzJskKqhz3

— ANI (@ANI) May 24, 2022

Why the name change?

After redrawing Andhra Pradesh’s district map by carving out 13 new states, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government announced that the Konaseema district would be renamed Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Konaseema district with its headquarters in Amalapuram.

The move came after demand from Dalit organisations, which was initially stonewalled by the government.

The Konaseema region was carved out as a new district from the erstwhile East Godavari district, which is part of the Amalapuram (Scheduled Caste-reserved) Lok Sabha constituency. It has a considerable Dalit population and the Amalapuram Assembly constituency is represented by P Viswarup.

Situated between the Bay of Bengal and the tributaries of the Godavari River, the backwaters of Konaseema are often compared to Kerala. It’s a popular tourist destination.

Who is opposing the name change?

The Andhra government has maintained that the decision to rename Konaseema was taken after requests from the district’s “large SC population”. Last week, it issued a preliminary notification seeking to rename the district and invited objections, if any, from the people.

However, non-SC groups want the tourist region’s “traditional name” to be retained. The Konaseema Sadhana Samiti objected to the proposed name change and organised a protest on Tuesday. They wanted to submit a memorandum to the district collector Himanshu Shukla against the renaming, reports NDTV.

When the police tried to quell the protests, infuriated demonstrators turned violent. The Konaseema Parirakshana Samithi and the Konaseema Udyama Samiti also joined in.

What is the Andhra government’s response?

State Home Minister Taneti Vanitha said that instead of feeling proud about the inclusion of Dr Ambedkar’s name, anti-social elements were inciting violence.

Viswarup has, however, blamed the protests on the opposition Telugu Desam Party.

“The state government renamed Konaseema as Ambedkar district while agreeing to requests as a large population of the district belongs to the SC community. But the TDP has instigated these protests to cause disturbances,” he said, according to The Indian Express.

What about other newly formed districts?

On 4 April, Jagan Mohan Reddy virtually inaugurated the 13 new districts in the state: 1) Parvathipuram Manyam, 2) Anakapalli, 3) Alluri Seetharama Raju, 4) Kakinada, 5) Konaseema, 6) Eluru, 7) Palnadu, 8) Bapatla, 9) Nandyala, 10) Sri Sathya Sai, 11) Sri Balaji, 12) Annamaya, and 13) NTR.

Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launches 13 new districts of the state via video conferencing at Tadepalli, Guntur district. The state will now have a total of 26 districts. pic.twitter.com/kXwumZG4vj

— ANI (@ANI) April 4, 2022

The chief minister has maintained that doubling the number of districts in the state would lead to better administration and decentralisation. The move to create new, smaller districts will ensure inclusive development, according to the government.

However, the government’s move has faced criticism from human and civil rights activists and non-profits.

The Human Rights Forum has argued that “the division of districts must be carried out after wide-ranging and meaningful public discussion”, but “there has been neither proper application of mind nor democratic consultation” in this case, reports The Indian Express.

According to the Forum, the new boundaries will put considerable distance between the proposed district headquarters and several places across the state. In some cases, the district headquarters may become more distant and difficult to access.

The protests before the reorganisation

Among the new districts, Sri Sathya Sai district has been carved out of Anantapur. It is named after the late spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba, who hailed from Puttaparthi town.

The headquarters of the new district, Puttaparthi, is an hour away from Hindupur. N Balakrishna, a TDP MLA, had demanded in February that his constituency Hindupur should be made the district headquarters since it has all the amenities. He even threatened to resign.

There were similar protests in Penukonda that it be made the headquarters of the Sri Sathya Sai district.

There were protests in Madanapalle mandal (Chittoor district) to be made district headquarters for the new Annamayya district, whose proposed headquarters is Rayachoti. Kadapa district, too, saw protests to make Rajampet as headquarters for Annamayya district, reports ThePrint.

There were also demands to rename the new districts after freedom fighters and poets.

TDP general secretary Varla Ramaiah had appealed to the CM that the new district Palnadu be named after legendary Telugu poet Gurram Joshua. There was a demand to name a district after National Flag designer Pingali Venkayya, and another one to rename Vijayawada after freedom fighter and former agriculture minister Late Kakani Venkataratnam, according to ThePrint report.

So far Konaseema is among the two new districts which have been renamed and it has already invited trouble.

From Visakhapatnam, two new districts of Anakapalli and Alluri Seetharama Raju, have been carved out. The latter district, part of the Araku parliamentary constituency, is dominated by tribals and named after the legendary freedom fighter who led the 1922 Rampa tribal rebellion, reports The Indian Express.

With inputs from agencies

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