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

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 and appreciated the state government's decision, on social media.

However, devotees in AP, particularly in Tirupati, seemed to have been not convinced with the proposal as the name Sri Balaji is popular only in 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 release of draft notification proposing names for a few other districts has mostly gone down well with the locals.
In a significant political move, the YSRCP government decided to name Vijayawada district after the founding president of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and former chief minister NT Rama Rao. The TDP, which was in power for almost 14 years after the death of NTR, did not attempt 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," civil supplies minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao (Nani) told the media.
Demand to name 2 districts after Dalit figures
However, the birth place of NTR, Nimmakuru in Krishna district, is now part of Pamarru assembly constituency and went to the newly proposed Krishna district by retaining Machilipatnam 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 district named after the river Krishna and also port town of Machilipatnam.
Saint, legendary musician and poet Annamayya's name has been proposed for Rajampet district. Tallapaka Annamacharya (Annamayya) was born in Kadapa and scripted and composed hundreds of keerthanas praising Lord Sri Venkateswara and Lord Vishnu. Rajampet district lost both the name and the district headquarter status. Rayachoti town is going to be the district headquarters for Annamayya district covering Rajampet Lok Sabha constituency.
Araku Lok Sabha constituency will be named after revolutionary freedom fighter Alluri Sitaramaraju. The existing revenue division headquarter Paderu will be district headquarters. Similarly, another district being carved out from Araku Lok Sabha constituency will have Parvathipuram as district headquarters and called Manyam district.
Amalapuram district will be named as Konaseema district. This region is known as Konaseema and the district name has gone down well with the locals. Similarly, the government has decided to name Narasaraopet district as Palnadu. A new district to be carved out from Penukonda Lok Sabha constituency will be called Sri Satya Sai district with Puttaparthi as its headquarters.
Dalit organisations have, however, demanded to name at least two new districts after renowned dalit personalities.