The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : TDP rule has benefited only party cadres: YSR

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 14, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

TDP rule has benefited only party cadres: YSR

By Our Correspondent

VIZIANAGARAM, APRIL 13. The former Congress Legislature Party leader, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, said that the nine-year rule of the Chandrababu Naidu Government helped "Telugu Tammullu'' (TDP cadres) become rich and "cheated'' all sections of society, including women and farmers, with its policies and programmes.

Addressing a large gathering at Cheepurupalle, Nellimarla and Vizianagaram as part of his `Jaitra Yatra' on Tuesday, Dr. Reddy said that the TDP rule had brought misery to all classes of society, particularly farmers. Had the Government spent Rs.35,000 crores out of the Rs.57,000 crores borrowed from the World Bank, all the pending irrigation projects would have been completed by now. He said the small farmers, finding no means to live due to drought conditions were migrating to other places and in some places were committing suicide.

The Government instead of mitigating their woes by digging more number of irrigation wells chose to invest on flyovers, parks and beautification of Hyderabad, he said. The Government reportedly spent Rs.1,600 crores on Neeru-Meeru and Rs.3,200 crores on Janmabhoomi programmes, which benefited the TDP cadres. He alleged that rice released under the Food For Work programme was sold by them. The cadres had even threatened officials at a few places for not clearing the bills for the incomplete works, he alleged.

He said that at the instance of the World Bank, the Chief Minister had not filled over two lakh jobs in various Government departments. Dr. Reddy said that the scholarships to students were denied and funds not released to CMEY groups. Programmes such as Adarana, Mundadugu, Roshini, etc., were all a flop as the beneficiaries were "cheated.'' He said that liquor was available even in remote places where drinking water was scarce.

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