Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday termed the just-concluded padayatra of Leader of the Opposition and YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy a ‘virama padayatra’ (a march with too many intervals) unlike the ‘pavitra padayatra’ ( a holy one) undertaken by him in the past to understand the problems of people and sincerely work to resolve them.
Addressing a “Janmabhoomi Maa Vooru” meeting at Ravuru village in Prakasam district, Mr. Naidu alleged that the Opposition party was trying to scuttle every development effort, including construction of Capital and irrigation projects such as Pattiseema and Polavaram which have been taken up with a lot of foresight to drought-proof the State. He underscored the need for the TDP retaining power for continuing the ongoing development projects and welfare schemes with greater vigour.
SC verdict hailed
The Chief Minister took strong objection to the Centre ‘usurping’ the powers of the State, giving a go-by to the spirit of cooperative federalism.
He hailed the Supreme Court ruling reinstating Alok Verma as Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation and termed it ‘a slap in the face of the Narendra Modi government.’
Mr. Naidu said it was unfortunate that the BJP government used Central agencies to wreak ‘political vengeance’ on his government for fighting for the legitimate rights of the fledgling State. “We will face them boldly for the sake of people,” he added.
Knife attack case
Mr. Naidu faulted the Centre for transfer of the case relating to knife attack on Mr. Jagan to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and accused the YSRCP of having a tacit understanding with the BJP to wriggle out of court cases relating to serious economic offences which saw officials and industrialists running into trouble. While welcoming quota for economically weaker sections of people, he questioned the Centre for introducing it on poll eve without considering the State’s pleas for quota for Kapus and inclusion of the fishermen and Valmiki communities in SC list.
He administered a pledge to the assembled gathering to work hard to put ‘Navyandhra’ on the road to progress.
