Tirupati to become Sri Balaji, Vijayawada gets NTR’s name

Devotees Abroad Happy, Appreciate AP Govt’s Decision

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Samdani.MN@timesgroup.com

27.01.2022

Amaravati: The temple town of Tirupati is becoming a new district and will be named after the presiding deity Lord Sri Balaji.

Devotees of Lord Sri Venkateswara overseas are happy about the proposal an d appreciated the state government’s decision,onsocialm edia. However, devotees in AP, particularly in Tirupati, seemed to have been not convinced with the proposal as the name Sri Balaji is p opular onlyin north India.

“It will be better to keep the name simply as Tirupati or name it after Sri Venkateswara or Sri Srinivas instead of Sri Balaji,” said Srikanth Reddy, a resident of Tirupati.

The r elease of draft n otification proposing names for a few otherdistricts has m ostly  gone down well with the locals. In a significant political move, the YSRCP g overnment decided to name Vi j ayawada district after the founding president of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and former chief m inisterNT Rama Rao. The TDP, which was in power for almost 14 years afte r the death of NTR, did n ot a ttempt to name a district after the legendary actor and party founder.

Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy promised to name a district after NTR during the last election campaign.

“This is the difference between Jagan and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu. While Jagan is a man of deeds, Naidu had always tried to deceive people,” alleged civil supplies minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao (Nani).

However, the birth place of NTR, Nimmakuru in Krishna district, is now part of Pamarru assembly consti- tuency and went to the newly proposed Krishna district by retaining M achilipatnam as district headquarters.

Sources said that the state government has decided to name Vijayawada district after NTR in order to protect the historical significance of Krishna distr ict named after the river Krishna and also port town of Machilipatnam.

Saint, legendary musician and p oet Annamayya’s name has been proposed for Rajampet district. Tallapaka Annamacharya (Annamayya) wa s born in Kadapa district and scripted and composed hundreds of keerthanas praising Lord Sri Ve nkateswara and Lord Vishnu. Rajampet district lost both the name and the district headqu arter status. Rayachoti townis g oing to be the district headquarters for Annamayya district covering Rajampet Lok Sabha constituency.

Araku Lok Sabha constituency will be named a fter revolutionary freedom fighter Alluri S itaramaraju.

Full report on www. toi. in