Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Thursday rejected the opposition demand for removal of Revenue Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao from the State Cabinet.
“Mr. Dharmana has no connection with the police firing incident in Sompeta in his native Srikakulam district. It is not correct to seek his resignation or removal from the Cabinet only because he belonged to Srikakulam,” Mr. Rosaiah told newsmen on the sidelines of the Legislative Council in Hyderabad on Thursday.
The Chief Minister said the circumstances leading to the police firing on protestors in Sompeta need to be established.
“I too have a doubt why such a huge police force has been positioned in Sompeta. Even if compared with such (police firing) incidents in the past, I think the police acted a bit excessively in this case,” he observed, while replying to the debate in the Legislative Council earlier on the issue.
The Chief Minister also told the Council that the government would follow the Environmental Appellate Tribunal’s order on the thermal power plant and take steps to stop the project works by NCC.
Talking to newsmen later, Mr. Rosaiah asserted that not a single acre of agricultural land would be affected by the power project.
Referring to his two-day trip to New Delhi, the Chief Minister said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram were all praise of his government.
“Your government is functioning very effectively,” Mr. Rosaiah quoted them as telling him at the Chief Ministers’ conference on Maoists yesterday.
He said the Centre sought deputation of senior IPS officers to train other officers to tackle the Maoist menace.
“I had a meeting with Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik wherein we discussed inter-State issues related to Jhanjhavati. I have invited him to visit Hyderabad for a discussion on Vamsadhara,” he said.
“I have not taken a decision on whether or not to campaign but I am confident that the Congress will put a good show in the by-elections,” Mr. Rosaiah said, in reply to a question.
The Chief Minister said adequate security would be provided to TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and other opposition legislators who have planned a ‘bus yatra’ to the controversial irrigation project Babli, constructed by the Maharashtra government, up to the Andhra border tomorrow.
