The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : We are on the right track, says Chief Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

We are on the right track, says Chief Minister

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, FEB. 22. The Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, on Tuesday stood his ground on the policies and projections outlined in the Governor's address and launched a tirade against the Leader of the Opposition, N. Chandrababu Naidu, for his "mindset" of finding fault with every action of the Government.

In a marathon reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address, in the Assembly, the Chief Minister gave a spirited rebuff to Mr. Naidu.

He was heard in rapt attention and unhindered, with the Telugu Desam members being suspended from the House. They did not return to the House though their suspension was revoked later.

BJP walkout

Two BJP members staged a walkout complaining against "insufficient response" to the points raised by them. The resolution thanking the Governor for his address was adopted shortly before the House was adjourned for the day.

Rebuts criticism

Dr. Reddy contested Mr. Naidu's criticism, point by point, saying that nine months so far was too insufficient a time to rectify the "mess" the Congress had inherited from Telugu Desam.

He had no moral right to talk about irrigation, agriculture and farmers suicide and if he had devoted one-fourth time to these issues during his nine-year rule, the situation would not have worsened now.

"He kept selling dreams and did nothing," he said and wanted him to rise above partisan level, stop resorting to a campaign of character assassination and join the efforts to better the lot of the poor.

Regional boards

The Chief Minister said there was a line of thinking in the Congress to revive regional development boards but no final decision was taken.

He would come out with an announcement on this soon. He did not agree that Telangana continued to be neglected, saying Rs. 22,000 crores out of the Rs. 46,000-crore budget for 46 irrigation projects would go to this region, working out to 45 per cent.

He appealed to naxalites to come for the next round of talks for which the Government was "ready with details of the follow-up action taken on the issues" raised by them in the first round.

His endeavour was to create a "vested interest for ultras in the system" so that they would eschew violence.

Jayati Ghosh report

Referring to the charge that he did not come to grips with administration yet, he said, he wanted the system to work on its own unlike in the past.

The report of the Jayati Ghosh Commission on Farmers Welfare, now being studied by a Cabinet Sub-Committee, would be implemented after being tabled in the House.

Moratorium on loans taken by farmers from private lenders would be extended.

Naming of schemes

Justifying the naming of various schemes after the Nehru family, Dr. Reddy said no other family had sacrificed so much for the country.

He announced renaming of more schemes and projects after them.

Some of the new ones include Jawahar Knowledge Centres in 33 engineering colleges, Jawahar Lift Irrigation Scheme (for Nettampadu), Rajiv Lift Irrigation Scheme (for Bheema), Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad and Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium at Uppal. The Kalwakurthy project would however be named after Mahatma Gandhi.

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