The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : We don't need media hype: YSR

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

We don't need media hype: YSR

By Our Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA, SEPT. 8. Reiterating that the Government will not survive on `media hype,' the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has said that it has never shirked its responsibilities in providing amenities to people.

The Government is committed to working hard for the welfare of people and `media hype can never substitute hard work.' The Chief Minister has also disapproved the publicity on the `number of people' taking a holy dip in the river during the Pushkarams.

Dr. Reddy, who was here in connection with the conclusion of the 12-day Krishna Pushkarams on Wednesday, launched an attack on the previous Telugu Desam Government for `living on hype' and ignoring the public needs.

The previous Government created a hype about seven crore people taking a holy dip, but officials later confirmed that the count was based on the number of times an individual took a dip, he said.

All that the TDP Government did during its tenure was the launch of publicity campaign on Swarnaandhrapradesh and Vision 2020. The Congress Government on the other hand had showed its commitment in action by calling tenders for works on the Polavaram project.

Report on deaths awaited

Regretting the death of five pilgrims on the first day of the pushkarams, the Chief Minister said that the Government had an inquiry conducted by a senior official into the incident to ascertain the facts and the report was under examination. The lapse might be due to lack of inter-departmental cooperation or some other reason. In his brief interaction with the media, Dr. Reddy reiterated that the Government never went back when it came to providing the basic amenities to people visiting the pushkaram sites.

Rs. 270 crores spent

Our Guntur Staff Reporter adds:

At Amaravathi, Dr. Reddy said the Government does not want to derive any political mileage out of the Pushkarams.

He said: "ours is a cash-starved Government, therefore we did whatever we could for the convenience of pilgrims for a holy dip in five districts in the State by spending Rs. 270 crores.''

He said that he did not care for the ratings given by the media, referring to the India Today-MARG Survey, which puts him in the second spot among the Chief Ministers in the country. "We are planning for the next five years and not creating hype through slogans like Vision 2020. My predecessor failed to stop work on Alamatti despite being alarmed by the Opposition and did not do anything with the 3,000 tmc Godavari waters going into sea,'' he observed.

The Chief Minister instituted an inquiry into the quality of laying two roads leading to Amaravathi from Mangalagiri and Guntur.

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