TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu should learn to put the State before self, party and community, Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao told the media here on Saturday.
The Minister further asked Mr. Naidu not to shed crocodile tears on Amaravati and make false claims that he had done a lot for Visakhapatnam.
“Had Mr. Naidu been so keen on developing Visakhapatnam, why did he sit on the ‘Panchagramalu’ issue for five years and issue a G.O. just before elections? He had adopted the same strategy towards the Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanthi and other projects,” the Minister alleged.
Referring to the much hyped CII Partnership Summits organised by the TDP government in Visakhapatnam, the Minister said, “When industrialists came forward to set up shop in the Port City, Mr. Naidu asked them to make Amaravati their base.”
“Mr. Naidu claims to have brought IIM to Vizag. But he should remember that the institution was sanctioned to the State as it was mentioned in the A.P. State Reorganisation Act, 2014. In the five years of his rule, Mr. Naidu could not ensure construction of even the boundary wall for the IIM at Gambheeram,” the Minister said.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was committed to developing all the regions of the State, the Minister said, and added that the concerns of the Amaravati farmers would be addressed.
“Mr. Naidu has no moral right to speak for the farmers,” he said.
‘Vizag best bet’
“Moreover, as the Chief Minister said, it is not worth spending ₹1 lakh crore on developing one region of the State. If a fraction of it is spent on Vizag, it will become a world-class city on par with Chennai and Bengaluru. The city already has the infrastructure in place,” the Minister observed.
Mr. Srinivasa Rao challenged Mr. Naidu to convince at least one of his MLAs from Visakhapatnam to resign in protest against making the city the Executive capital.
“It is not clear as to why Mr. Naidu is against development of the North Andhra region,” said Chodavaram MLA Karanam Dharmasri.
“Vizag is the only city in the State that has the potential to generate revenue on par with Hyderabad. Hence, it deserves to be made the Executive capital,” he said.
