The governments at the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh are splurging funds on populist schemes and projects, ignoring basic needs such as making education and health affordable to the people, Lok Satta Party (LSP) founder Jayaprakash Narayan has said.
Mr. Narayan was here on Friday to participate in the party’s four-day ‘Janam Kosam JP Surajya Yatra’ programme in the city and district.
Addressing the media before launching the campaign, he said it was unfortunate that the political debate at both the national and State levels was on who would win the next elections instead of what the ruling parties had done to alleviate the problems of the common people.
Rail project
Referring to the 508-km high-speed rail project between Ahmedabad ando Mumbai, Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan said that instead of spending $ 34,000 million per km on the project, a fraction of the money could be used to double the speed of the trains by improving the track between important destinations such as Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, and other places in the country. India ranks 103rd in Human Development Index, which was calculated based on education, health, and government services. This was an indication of the status of health and education in the country.
Referring to the populist schemes of the Chandrababu Naidu Government, he said spending on ‘kanukas’ (gifts) and publicity campaigns for ‘Jalasiriki Harati’ was nothing but wasting the taxpayers’ money.
Elections
He alleged that huge amount of public money was being used to fight municipal and panchayat elections.
Replying to a query on the alleged failure of the State government to extract the assurances given by the Centre under the AP Reorganisation Act such as new railway zone in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Narayan said the elected representatives were fighting over issues like caste and neglecting the real problems. He felt that people should realise their responsibility and exert pressure on the elected governments.
To another query, he said efforts would be made to sensitise the people on issues concerning them.
‘Join the movement’
He appealed to the people, irrespective of their political affiliations, to join the movement to strengthen democracy. Interested youth could log on to www.youthforbetter india.com and register themselves by giving their name and phone number.
