Telugu Desam Party general secretary Nara Lokesh on Monday visited Amaravati to express solidarity to the agitating farmers who are opposing the Andhra Pradesh government’s move to relocate the state capital.
Farmers, who have given their land for development of Amaravati as the state capital, have been on a protest for 300 days, opposing the YSR Congress Party government’s move to relocate Amaravati capital city to Vizag.
Participating in the protest along with Amaravati farmers at Penumaka in Guntur district, Lokesh, son of former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, lashed out at Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy stating that he had failed on all fronts.
Lokesh said Jagan’s decision has shattered the dream of thousands of farmers and destroyed the dream to build Amaravati as a world-class capital city.
“Amaravati was selected as the capital city after studying all aspects. It was endorsed by everybody including Jagan Mohan Reddy and it was a collective decision. Jagan had assured his full support to the development of Amaravati as the capital. He even contended that the capital must have a minimum of 30,000 acres. After coming to power, he took a U-turn and proposed three capitals with an intention to help land mafia and usurp lands in Vizag,” he accused.
Lokesh reminded that it was during the previous TDP government that several major projects like international airport plan at Bhogapuram, Adani Data Centre, convention centre by Lulu Group and several IT companies evinced interest in Andhra Pradesh.
“This government has miserably failed to attract a single big ticket project in the last one year. On the top of it, all the big investors have withdrawn their investment plans and are now scared to invest in Andhra Pradesh because of Jagan’s lack of vision. Visakhapatnam is a developed city. Under the Telugu Desam government, numerous investments by prominent business groups such as Adani and LuLu were initiated in Visakhapatnam. But this government has thwarted the projects and scared away investors due to the inefficient and lopsided policies of Jagan,” he said.
Further, Lokesh said the current political dispensation was not able to prove the allegations of corruption it had levied on the TDP government over the Visakhapatnam lands issue.
