YSR roars in Pulivendula

[koustubbhargav]

By Abhimaan Kashyap

Pulivendula: Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy took the election battle to Pulivendula, his bastion, hitting out at the TDP manifesto saying the hi-tech government of Chandrababu Naidu ignored the interests of farmers during his nine-year-rule but is now shedding crocodile tears for them.

He said while farmers were committing suicide, Chandrababu Naidu embarked on a project to build an F1 track in Hyderabad at a cost of $100 million. “When Andhra Pradesh was burning, Nara was fiddling. He was only interested in taking up fancy projects and never cared about the sufferings of farmers. Today, he talks about 12 hours of free power forgetting that he hiked power tariff eight times in nine years of his rule,” he said amidst whistles and applause. “Why did he not implement these schemes during his nine-year rule?” 

The chief minister said the day his government assumed office, it eased the burden of farmers by giving free power supply. He said the Congress government accorded prime focus to agriculture on which 75 per cent of the people depend. Further, he said most of the schemes that Naidu promised in his manifesto today have already been implemented during his five-year rule. The free power scheme reduced the burden of power tariff. He said his government had subsidised bank loans through Pavala Vaddi, lowered the costs of farm inputs such as seeds, waived farmers’ loans to the tune of Rs 12,000 crore.

Rajasekhara Reddy criticized Naidu for drafting the services of his brothers-in-law and nephews to shore up the TDP’s campaign. “It’s a clear sign of inadequacy,” he thundered. He said even Chiranjeevi, a new entrant to politics, was criticising the irrigation projects as “dhanayagnam”, and challenged Chiranjeevi to even dream of one such project during his lifetime. He said Chiranjeevi was making allegations without properly understanding the conditions that prevail in Telangana. 

Chiranjeevi seemed to be influenced by what the CPM and TDP had been saying. "Can he construct at least one such project during his lifetime?" Rajasekhara Reddy quipped. He said the actor has no “avagahana” about development schemes, while leaders like Naidu were leveling baseless allegations against the government as he could never have thought of such massive schemes. “They are jittery about their political future,” he said.