Leaders of the Opposition parties on Saturday resolved to step up agitation to press for a ₹25,000 crore public sector port at Ramayapatnam to spur economic growth in the backward district of Prakasam.

After Union Minister for ports Mansukh Mandaviya, in a reply to a question in the Parliament, expressed inability to fund a non-major port(NMP) at Ramayapatnam, leaders at a roundtable convened by Prakasam District Development Forum(PDDF) president Ch. Ranga Rao exhorted the YSR Congress Party government to exert pressure on the Central government to take up the port, as is promised in the State Reorganisation Act, in Ramayapatnam in the wake of the latter expressing reservation over taking up the project at Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district.

Shipbuilding industry

The leaders decided to go in a delegation to Amaravati also to press for location of a shipbuilding industry in the district, which had remained backward since its formation by clubbing together the most backward parts of Nellore, Kurnool and Guntur districts and mobilise people in and around Ramayapatnam, including Singarayakonda, for a protracted struggle.

The Centre dilly-dallied on the public sector port project after Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd picked up stakes in Krishnapatnam Port Co Ltd(KPCL), alleged Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president Sripathy Prakasam. TDP Ongole Lok Sabha unit president N. Balaji said MPs from the State should not hesitate to put in their papers for the big cause.

CPI district president M.L. Narayana opined that people cutting across party-lines should be mobilised for an ‘Assembly Chalo’ agitation to highlight the injustice to the State. The State Assembly should adopt a resolution urging the Centre to take up a central port project at Ramayapatnam instead of an NMP, said CPI(M) leader P.Hanumantha Rao.