Former Finance Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Saturday urged the government to shift the proposed Divi’s pharma unit from Thondangi mandal near Kakinada in East Godavari district to another location.
In a letter to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Mr. Ramakrishnudu demanded that the cases booked against the local fisherfolk and women protesting against the project be withdrawn immediately.
The senior TDP leader blamed the government for ‘destroying peace’ in the region by deploying a large number of police forces and subjecting the locals to intimidation.
He condemned in strong terms the cases booked against locals and called it an act of suppression. He said the locals had been resisting the proposed project as it would not only spread pollution but would also deprive them of their livelihoods. He said the affluents released by the chemical unit and bulk drug industries would kill aqua life, destroy hatcheries and deprive the fisherfolk of their livelihood.
Mr. Ramakrishnudu accused Mr. Jagan of going back on his word on the issue. “When he was in the Opposition, he had assured that the factory would not be allowed to come up here but he is doing exactly that when he is in power now,” he said.
He said Mr. Jagan had unleashed a reign of anarchy and terror in the State where people were robbed of their right to dissent. “The Chief Minister is behaving like an autocrat, subjecting people who questioned the government’s failures to harassment,” he said.
Mr. Ramakrishnudu said SC, ST, BC, Muslim minorities and other weaker sections had lost faith in the YSRCP government as they were at the receiving end of growing atrocities by the ruling party ‘goons’. Violence and unrest are ruling the roost and there was growing insecurity among the people of the State, he alleged.
