The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Development plank: Congress party game for Telugu Desam challenge on debate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Development plank: Congress party game for Telugu Desam challenge on debate

Special correspondent

TDP Government has failed miserably on all fronts, say CLP leaders TDP Government failed miserably on all fronts, say Congress leaders

HYDERABAD: The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) has challenged the TDP to a debate on development listing its Government's one-year achievements.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, E. Pratap Reddy and S. Gangaram, secretaries of the CLP, G. Muddukrishnama Naidu, spokesperson of the PCC, and MLA, D.L. Ravindra Reddy, R. Suryaprakasa Rao, Swarna Sudhakar Reddy and S. Udaya Bhanu, Whip, said the Congress Government had been implementing all its election promises.

The Government had commendably done the tight ropewalk of balancing welfare measures and developmental activity without imposing any taxes on people so far, they said. They said the Congress Government had not only undertaken massive `Jala Yagnam' programme at a cost of Rs. 46,000 crores but had also given a new thrust to the industrial sector.

Heavy steel plants

Heavy steel plants were being planned by giants in the sector like ESSAR and Jindal-Vijayanagar and Volkswagen was finalising its proposal to set up its automobile unit in the State. While the TDP Government could witness just Rs. 4, 500 crores investment between 2000-2004, the proposals alone were worth several thousand crores.

They said the infrastructure sector was also getting a boost with the plan to construct 40 lakh houses in the next five years for the poor. The benefit to the steel and cement industry from the proposed irrigation projects was also going be massive, they said. The average number of houses constructed by the TDP was around 2.25 lakh per annum whereas the Congress Government in the last one year could construct 6.5 lakh houses.

Achievements galore

They asked the TDP leaders to compare the latter's "anti-people policies" with welfare measures like free power, reservations for minorities, hike in pensions and numbers, land distribution and employment opportunities initiated by the Congress Government to find out reasons for its popularity.

The efforts of the TDP with "its friendly media" to sully the image of the Government would only boomerang on it, they warned.

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