Former legislator and senior YSRC leader Jogi Ramesh on Friday challenged Irrigation Minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao for a fact-finding tour of Krishna delta to prove that Pattiseema project was truly beneficial to the delta farmers.
Speaking to mediapersons, he said several mandals in Krishna district were yet to get water, and farmers were suffering owing to shortage of water for irrigation.
He alleged that the Minister was acting like a “broker” to the Chief Minister’s family collecting commission from the irrigation projects. Mr. Ramesh said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu cheated people of Andhra Pradesh by sacrificing the special status for Polavaram. “As Polavaram was declared a national project, thousands of crores can be made through commission from the contractors,” he alleged.
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He said Telugu Desam Party leaders had no right to take the credit for Pulichintala project as it was conceived by former chief minister the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.
He reminded people of Mr. Naidu’s views on farmers and agriculture in the early 2000, when he was Chief Minister of united AP. “The Chief Minister said there was no need of encouraging agriculture. Now he is taking about their welfare and betterment”. He blamed the government for luring his party MLAs by offering them posts and money.
Former MLA Velampalli Srinivas said that programmes such as Janmabhoomi and Jana Chaitanya Yatra were a farce as lesser number of people were seen taking part. “One can see good number of policemen in these people-friendly programmes”. He said the government was yet to come out with the housing scheme for the poor in and around Vijayawada.
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