Panel on Capital: APCC suspects ‘foul play’

'No reason to constitute a new panel when the K.C. Sivaramakrishnan Committee was about to submit its recommendations.'

Congress leaders Botcha Satyanarayana and N. Raghuveera Reddy at the party’s review meeting at Andhra Ratna Bhavan in Vijayawada on Monday. PHOTO: V. RAJU

The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee has suspected some ‘foul play’ in the announcement of a committee for identification of the capital for the new State by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu led government.

The APCC saw no reason why the government should constitute a new panel when the K.C. Sivaramakrishnan Committee constituted by the Central government was about to submit its recommendations. “Where is the need for a new committee when the Sivaramakrishnan committee is about to conclude its findings?” APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy asked.

Mr. Raghuveera Reddy alleged that the panel was aimed at settling ‘financial deals’ in the name of the capital as was evident from the composition of the committee. There was no a mention of experts in the relevant field and the panel comprised members who were known loyalists of Mr. Naidu.

The APCC president along with his predecessor in the united State Botcha Satyanarayana and other senior leaders were here to participate in an extended meeting of the APCC on Monday. The meeting was convened to take stock of the party’s situation in the new State post bifurcation and evolve measures to strengthen the organisation from the grass root level.

The meeting, accordingly, decided to reconstitute various organisational panels including the district Congress Committees before the end of the next month so that the party could vigorously highlight the failures of the government in fulfilling its promises. The more than three-hour meeting discussed the TDP government’s reluctance in implementing its promise of crop loan waiver that helped the party come to power.

Mr. Raghuveera Reddy criticised the government for “dilly dallying” on firm announcement on the crop loan waiver to farmers on one pretext or the other. The divergent views expressed by Ministers and senior TDP leaders had created confusion among farmers, DWCRA women and other sections on the promise while the government, he felt, was trying to dilute the SC/ST Sub Plan.

The Congress had therefore decided to mobilise ryots to launch an agitation against the government if it went back on its promise of loan waiver. The APCC would conduct its next meeting in Visakhapatnam on July 26 and Vizianagaram the next day to discuss organisational issues as well as exhorting party cadre to actively take up local issues.