more-in Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu should immediately give his consent for locating the second public sector port sanctioned to Andhra Pradesh at Ramayapatnam in the wake of experts ruling out its location at Dugarajapatnam in view of the environment, economic and security concerns, former Union Minister and BJP women’s wing national in-charge D. Purandeswari said here on Sunday. Ms. Purandeswari told a media conference that instead of taking advantage of the Centre’s offer to take up a ?25,000-crore port project, the State government was bent upon developing Ramayapatnam as a non-major port for reasons best known to it. She wondered why the State government had not responded to a letter from the Centre for suggesting an alternative site to Dugarajapatnam. Of the three sites shortlisted including Nakkapalli, experts had concluded Ramayapatnam as the best-suited, she added. Accusing Mr. Naidu of meting out a “step-motherly” treatment to Prakasam district be it in the location of big ticket projects or Central higher education institutions, she said the district formed by clubbing together the most backward parts of Kurnool, Guntur and Nellore districts continued to remain backward. No concrete steps had been initiated to include it in the list of backward districts under the State Reorganisation Act, she said. It was unfortunate that the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone sanctioned by the Centre had not been grounded due to the “indifference” of the State government to land acquisition and other issues. She took exception to Mr. Naidu blaming her party with “ulterior political motives” for his legal woes in the wake of the issuance of a non-bailable warrant by a Maharashtra court. Ms. Purandeswari said the BJP was not in power either at the Centre or in Maharashtra when the case was registered during a protest against the Babli project across the river Godavari without taking into account the riparian rights of Telagana, then part of Andhra Pradesh. It was the Congress party that ruled not only the upper and lower riparian States but was also in power at the Centre, she pointed out. The NBW was a result of repeated non-appearance before the court concerned to summons issued from time to time and the BJP had nothing to do with it, she said.

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