Opposition leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who resumed his Praja Sankalpa Yatra in the Proddatur constituency in Kadapa district on Saturday after a day’s gap, promised to include the Boya/Valmiki community in the Scheduled Tribes list if YSR Congress Party gained power.
Members of the community represented to him at Potladurthy in the Proddatur constituency seeking ST status and said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu made the promise but was betraying them. Contract lecturers, village revenue assistants and contract employees of the APSRTC, 108 ambulance service, A.P. Genco, A.P. Transco, Proddatur area hospital staff and minority leaders called on the YSRCP president and gave vent to their discontent at the government’s indifference to their demands. He promised to resolve their problems after a year if he gained power by God’s grace and the people’s support.
Addressing a large gathering at the Puttaparthi circle in Proddatur town, Mr. Jagan said the town had not witnessed any development in the four-year Chandrababu Naidu rule. Whatever development took place in Proddatur was during his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s rule, he asserted. The YSR government established a veterinary hospital, Yogi Vemana University and built the outer ring road, he said.
Mr. Naidu’s promises of a smart city, food park, steel plant and Urdu university in the district remained elusive, the Opposition leader maintained. Mr. Naidu duped the farmers in the name of crop loan waiver, women in the name of DWCRA loan waiver and youth promising jobs but did nothing, he pointed out.
Reassuring the people that he would fulfil every promise that he was making, he promised to resolve the drinking water problem and complete the underground drainage system in Proddatur.
He asserted that his election manifesto would reflect the hopes and aspirations of the common man and would not be like the TDP manifesto drafted in air-conditioned rooms. The YSRCP manifesto would be implemented in toto.
The Naidu government neglected completion of the Gandikota, Sarvarayasagar, Vamikonda and other projects, on which 85% work was completed during YSR rule. Mr. Jagan staged a 13-km padayatra from the Proddatur bypass road and covered Potladurthy, Ayyappa Swamy temple and Kanyaka Parameswari temple streets, gold shops street, Puttaparthi circle, Sivalayam road, Sri Vivekananda wholesale cloth market and made a night halt at Sai Sree Nagar camp site in the Proddatur Housing Board Colony.
YSRCP MLAs Rachamallu Prasada Reddy, S.B. Amzath Basha, Koramutla Srinivasulu, G. Srikanth Reddy, district president A. Amarnath Reddy, Kadapa Mayor K. Suresh Babu, and other leaders were present.
Yatra in Kurnool
Meanwhile, YSRCP’s Kurnool parliamentary constituency convener B.Y. Ramaiah said that Mr. Jagan’s ‘Praja Sankalpa Yatra’ would enter Kurnool district on November 14 at Chagalamarri. Mr. Jagan would reach Chagalamarri in Allagadda mandal on the night of November 13 and commence the yartra on November 14, Mr. Ramaiah told the media on Saturday. He would cover Allagadda, Banaganapalli, Koilkuntla, and Dhone constituency.
