Finally, senior Congress leader from former minister Dr DL Ravindra Reddy, came out of 17-month hibernation and reacted on the Amaravati project. The former minister, following the bifurcation of the Andha Pradesh, disappeared from the radar. He did not even contest the 2014 election. Later, after the elections, for some time, he was toying with the idea of switching sides to Telugu Desam. But, the decision did not take off forcing him to remain anonymous till today. On Friday, he came to Assembly to collect his pension and spotted by the ever vigilant electronic media.
Giving an indication of his future program ie participating in the Rayalaseema movement, he talked of many things about Rayalaseema. Later, he spoke to ‘telugu360.com’ for some time exclusively.
He said the situation in the Rayalaseema was ripe for a movement against the on-going injustice to the region. ” The region is being ignored and its problems remain unattended even in the present regime. It’s a deliberate attempt. Because you want to make a region world-class, willy-nilly you have to leave the other regions in the lurch. Because developing every region like Amaravati Capital Region is not possible. With this mindset one cannot expect better treatment from TDP government either for Rayalaseema or North Coastal Andhra,” he said.
He described the way the foundation stone laying ceremony of Amaravati was conducted on October 22, as vulgar. “On one side entire Rayalaseema is passing through severe drought. For the first time people are not getting water even for a wet and dry crop. KC canal has got dried up. The economy of farming sector is in tatters. Against this backdrop government had spent about Rs 400 crore for capital city foundation stone program which lasted for two hours. can any saner chief minister splurge money on such useless extravaganza?,” he asked.
Was there government in Andhra Pradesh, he wondered adding that had the money been spent on Rayalaseema projects, people would have benefited. ” The CM is more interested in image make up rather than working for the poor of the state. His world-class vision is anti-poor and anti-farmer,” DL said. He said Rayalaseema people were totally disillusioned with the TDP government’s attitude, especially, the attitude of chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.
“He is struggling a lot- struggling to deceive people that he is too busy and working hard for 22 hours. It’s all fraud. He is pretending busy by organizing luxury tours and non-productive review meetings. He comes by helcopter and goes by a special flight. Recently he landed in Kadapa by helicopter and rushed to Vijayawada in a special flight. He was tying all officials to chief minister’s office with too many meetings preventing them from attending their original work,” he said.
Rayalaseema people would soon come out with program of action on November 21, he said.
“The meeting scheduled on November 14, in Tirupati is postponed to November 21. I am hopeful an action plan will be finalized in the meeting of all organizations from four districts of Rayalaseema,” he said.
