Youth vied with one another in greeting and taking selfie with YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and women drew rangoli patterns on the road and welcomed him with ‘harathi’ when he began the ‘Praja Sankalpa Yatra’ at the Vempalle crossroads in Kadapa district on the second day on Tuesday.
A large number of men and women assembled to greet Mr. Jagan, who hoisted the party flag at Vempalle.
A woman asked Mr. Reddy to bless her differently abled child and an aged woman broke down stating that her name had been excluded from the pensioners’ list.
Youth narrated their plight because of lack of employment and non-fulfilment of the promise to disburse unemployment allowance by the government.
Muslims greeted the YSRCP chief and sought revival of quota for them and farmers lamented the “haphazard” implementation of the loan waiver scheme and lack of remunerative price that left them in a debt trap.
Flashing a smile, Mr. Reddy went on meeting people during the padayatra.
Interacting with youth, women, farmers and senior citizens during the ‘rachabanda’ programme at Vempalle, Mr. Reddy promised the unemployed youth that 1.42 lakh vacancies would be filled if the YSRCP gained power. He also promised free power to all the colonies inhabited by the SCs and STs. Assuring housing for all, he promised enhancement of the monthly pension to the beneficiaries to ₹2,000.
‘Kaurava reign’
“If Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu increases the pension to ₹2,000, my government would further increase it to ₹3,000,” Mr. Reddy said.
Stating that the TDP rule was akin to the Kaurava reign in the Mahabharata, Mr. Reddy exuded confidence that the YSRCP would gain power in the 2019 elections. Promising total fee reimbursement, he said each college student would be disbursed ₹20,000 towards college expenses.
A project to establish a steel factory in Kadapa would be taken up to generate employment to 10,000 persons within six months of the YSRCP coming to power and completed in three years, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said. He concluded his 12.6-km padayatra at Neelathimmayapalle in Proddatur Road, where he would stay for the night.
