The timing of the three-day Visakha Utsav is very inappropriate as residents are yet to recover from the devastation caused by Cyclone Hudhud in October and the promised relief from the Government has not been paid to most of the affected persons, Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Dronamraju Srinivas has said.
Addressing media along with former minister P. Balaraju here on Sunday, City Congress president Behera Bhaskar Rao said that it would have been right for the Government to organise such a celebration after paying out compensation and repairing damaged facilities. The festival would then have been a celebration of the victory of the spirit of resilience of the people of the city.
The celebration appears to be serving the interests of only one minister from the district who has been visible everywhere. Where are the funds for such celebrations, especially when the Chief Minister had declared that there were no funds even to pay salaries? he asked.
The Telugu Desam Government was not serving the interests of the poor, they alleged by pointing out that names of a large number of existing and eligible persons had been struck off from the list of beneficiaries getting old age and other welfare schemes, former Tribal Welfare minister P. Balaraju said. He cited the examples of villages in the Agency area where a large number of old women who were receiving pension from the time Telugu Desam party was in power in its earlier stint.
The officials were striking off the names off on flimsy grounds like not matching of names, not having a bank account or discrepancies in names in different places.
There is every reason to celebrate the Visakha Utsav, but it should have been put off for some time, they opined. In fact, many of the poor residents did not have adequate resources to celebrate the traditional Sankranti, such lavish spending was adding insult to the injury of the poor, he said.
