The JSP-led ‘long march’ in Visakhapatnam on Sunday in support of the construction workers reeling under the impact of sand scarcity was nothing but a conspiracy against the YSRCP government, said Minister for Endowments Vellampalli Srinivasa Rao.
The TDP, which extended its solidarity to the protest programme, was party to the conspiracy, the Minister said, and questioned how could sand be mined from the rivers in spate.
There were floods in the Godavari, the Krishna, the Vamsadhara, and the Nagavali for the last 50 days, making sand mining very difficult, he said while addressing the media along with Vijayawada Central MLA Malladi Vishnu after visiting the Prakasam barrage here.
Mr. Srinivasa Rao said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy brought out a new sand policy on September 5, but floods hampered sand mining. As a consequence, sand had become scarce.
Out of 260 reaches, sand could be extracted from only 60. The government would reach out to the construction sector by making enough quantities of sand available once the floods receded, he asserted.
The Minister alleged that it was the failure of N. Lokesh’s protest in Guntur the pushed former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and JSP president Pawan Kalyan to join hands to put the government in the dock by raking up the sand issue.
Mr. Vishnu said Mr. Kalyan would do well to suggest how to take out sand from swollen rivers. He said 800 tmcft water was emptied into the sea from the Prakasam barrage.
‘A drama’
The ‘long march’ was a drama enacted by the JSP and the TDP to derive political mileage, he said, and added that it would not do any good to the construction workers.
