Leader of the Opposition in Assembly and YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy launched his 3,000-km-long walkathon, ‘Praja Sankalpa Yatra’ at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district on Monday targeting Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The picturesque valley surrounded by the verdant Seshachalam Hills reverberated with ‘Jai Jagan’ chants as thousands of people converged on the YSR Ghat.
Not only party followers, but also people from nearby villages, including a large number of women, aged and infirm persons, thronged to see the ‘son of the soil’ undertake the padayatra, which is touted as ‘a fight for justice.’
Undeterred by a spell of rain at around 3 p.m., Mr. Jagan began his walk that would take him to parts of all districts during the next six months before its conclusion at Ichchapuram in Srikakulum.
En route, he is expected to meet and interact with people in large numbers to know their problems and come out with solutions later in the ‘people’s manifesto.’
After offering prayers at his father and former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s Samadhi (tomb), Mr. Jagan emerged on the stage two hours behind schedule.
Mr. Jagan made no bones of his displeasure over the autocratic style of functioning of Mr. Naidu and left no stone unturned to tear into the TDP government’s misrule and corruption.
Special Category Status
Mr. Naidu failed miserably to keep his election promises. “None of them have been implemented. From construction of capital to irrigation projects, all of them have been reduced to money-making ventures.” His fiery speech was however no different from his public addresses made during the Nandyal by-election and “navaratnalu”, the nine election promises, he made recently at the party’s plenary session.
Mr. Jagan reiterated his resolve to fight for the Special Category Status and called it an elixir to solve all the ills plaguing the State.
“In the absence of Special Category Status, there are no tax sops for the industry. The industry hence does not evince interest to set up base here. No new industry will come to the State if we don’t get the special status,” he said.
He touched upon agrarian crisis which he said was marked by a significant fall in crop acreage and fall in lending to the farm sector. Hundreds of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) remaining only on paper, not a ‘single brick’ used to built the ‘dream capital’ Amaravati, which he alleged had turned into a haven for real estate sharks.
Legislators, senior leaders and thousands of activists from all the districts participated in the event and cheered him throughout his walkathon on the first day. Traffic came to a standstill on the Gandi-Idupulapaya Road on a stretch of 6 km for more than four hours.
