In protest against the proposed port at Dugarajapatnam, the Andhra Pradesh Students and Youth Joint Action Committee (APSYAC) on Sunday staged a Jala Deeksha and demanded the port be shifted to Ramayapatnam in Prakasam district.
Students knelt down in the waves and raised slogans demanding the port be moved to Ramayapatnam, which would then create employment opportunities for scores of youth.
The protesting students also raised slogans against the state government for not providing an alternative location for the port, despite the Centre reportedly saying that the proposed site –Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district – is not feasible.
The APSYAC state president Rayapatti Jagadeesh said that the Centre, in the current Parliament session, should announce that the port be moved to Ramayapatnam.
Jagadeesh added that instead of the Centre asking the state to take a call on it, the Centre itself should take a final decision and shift the port immediately, The Hindu reported.
The demand to build the port in Ramayapatnam has been a long-standing one. In May last year, cutting across party lines, several leaders lent their support for the port to be built in Ramayapatnam – they had even planned a series of protests against the state government for dilly-dallying on the demand.
Recently, in February, supporters of the Opposition parties, along with civil society organizations, took out a protest march reminding the state and Centre to build the port in Ramayapatnam, which thereby will create employment opportunities to the distressed youth in the district.
They even had slammed the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu who, instead of providing an alternate location, had asked the Centre to sanction a Coastal Economic Zone (CEZ) if it had problems in proceeding with the port project at Dugarajapatnam.