Launching a scathing attack against the State government for diluting the local bodies by not conducting the elections, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu has alleged that the sanitation and other development works have come to a standstill in the rural areas due to absence of sarpanches.
Addressing a mammoth gathering as part of his ‘Vasthunna Meekosam’ padayatra, which entered the fifth day in Malyala mandal headquarters of the district on Wednesday, Mr. Naidu said that the State government’s decision of not conducting elections to local bodies had stopped the Central grant to the tune of Rs. 2,000 crore. “The State government would neither release funds for the development of the villages nor will it allow the Centre to release the annual grant,” he pointed out.
Cooperative polls
Alleging that the State government was planning to conduct the cooperative elections in a hurry despite the proposed act of the Union government to strengthen the cooperative societies and the banks, he said that the government was not enrolling new members for the cooperative societies and planning to conduct elections with the existing members to have its sway in the elections.
During the interaction with the villagers, the former Chief Minister condemned the heinous crime of gang rape of a woman in New Delhi. Expressing concern over poor law and order situation in the country in general and Andhra Pradesh in particular, he said that there was no security for the girls and woman in the country and flayed the inefficient governments.
‘TDP empowered women’
Claiming that they had empowered the women by constituting self-help groups, he said that other States had followed the Andhra Pradesh SHG movement of economic empowerment of women. He charged the government with burdening the SHG women in the name of ‘Pavalavaddi’ by imposing the interest of more two to three rupees.
When the villagers bought to his notice about the poor sanitation and no accountability of employees, he said that the TDP government had introduced several schemes such as Janmabhoomi, Prajala vaddaku palana, etc. to ensure transparency and accountability. He said that they had launched clean and green programme to check the spread of diseases and protect environment.
Mr. Naidu launched his fifth day yatra from Rajaram village with his supporters joining him. He entered the fields and interacted with the cotton farmers and other sections. The students also welcomed Mr. Naidu all along his padayatra. TDP legislator Suddala Devaiah, senior leader E. Peddi Reddy and others were also present.
