Minister for Education Botsa Satyanarayana took strong exception to the Opposition parties remarks on GO 1 and suggested them go study the content before making further comments.

Addressing the media on Saturday, Botsa said that TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu and his friendly media are unnecessarily creating a ruckus over the GO meant to regulate public gatherings to safeguard people. It does not restrain rallies and meetings and explains the disadvantages of conducting rallies and meetings on roads and highways.

Explaining the reasons for issuing GO, he blamed Naidu’s self-promotion mission for the stampede deaths at Kandukuru and Guntur, besides injuries to several others.

To protect the public interests, the State government has issued orders to safeguard the public and prevent recurrence of unfortunate incidents. An inquiry was ordered by the government to find the lapses during the recent meetings of the TDP chief, he said, adding that it’s not prudent on part of Naidu to blame YSRCP for the unfortunate incidents.

He also took a dig at Naidu for violating the orders during his recent visit to Kuppam. Instead, he should tender an open apology to the public and should own the responsibility for the stampede deaths, he said adding that Sena Chief Pawan Kalyan will only express the ideology of Naidu, ignoring the public interests.

Referring to the padyatras of former Chief Minister Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, he said they conducted padyatras in a systematic manner after taking approvals from the police and without causing any inconvenience to public.

Reacting to the ‘Yuvagalam’ padyatra of Nara Lokesh, the minister maintained that Lokesh who had no achievements to claim during his stint as a minister has no credibility to conduct padyatra.