AP Opposition Leader and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday asserted that it would be a great disservice to people if a political party in power vandalises and demolishes development projects for the sake of settling scores with rival parties.
He called for constructive and competitive politics wherein the respective parties should aim at ushering in greater development than their predecessor governments instead of wrecking existing projects out of vendetta.
Mr. Naidu spoke to party leaders in a virtual conference on the occasion of his birthday celebrations. He thanked the party cadres for reposing faith in his leadership and asked them to continue their service to the public regardless of the party being in power or not.
Stating that the present health crisis is an opportunity to help those in need, Mr. Naidu said that the NTR Trust is distributing 2.5 lakh masks at the rate of 1,000 masks in each assembly constituency. The masks would be given to ANMs, aasha workers, doctors, sanitation staff and other frontline workers. The government should pay ex-gratia to the chini farmers who are committing suicides in Pulivendula because of losses due to lockdown.
Mr. Naidu expressed shock over the death of muslim youth Gouse in Sattenapalli town when he was attacked by the police over lockdown violations. The police and the people should cooperate with each other in this crisis with harmony. Ex-gratia should be paid to the family of the deceased. The police should not act in a highhanded manner and they should treat all sections of people with empathy. Everybody should behave responsibly and display a spirit of brotherhood in this epidemic threat.
Mr. Naidu recalled that in the present catastrophic circumstances, the reports given by Chief Ministers in the past on Swachcha Bharat and Digital Currency would be very useful. Ground-breaking developments took place in telecom sector only after convincing Vajpayee and got the sector deregulated. Recommendations on micro irrigation opened a new chapter in drip and sprinkler irrigation. Development was possible because of Cyberabad construction, HiTech City, Outer Ring Road, Shamshabad International Airport and infrastructure. In the previous five years of TDP rule, land-mark projects were taken up to interlink rivers, construct Amaravati Capital and a total of 22 projects. Seventy two per cent Polavaram project works were completed.
The former Ministers, MPs, MLAs, party politburo members and others took part in the virtual conference. They said that now, Kurnool district was caught in a dangerous virus outbreak because of suppression of initial cases by the government. Deaths were not reported in Nellore and Rajahmundry. Medical grade masks were not given to doctors and health workers while ruling party leaders are wearing them. Frontline workers fell victim to infections. All this led to 84 per cent of Andhra Pradesh declared as red zones by the Centre.
The TDP leaders said that the ASI would not have died if he was equipped with suitable personal protection equipment with timely preventive measures. Two doctors and two health workers contracted virus in Anantapur and eight government employees reported +ve because of the government’s negligence and indifference.
