VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will be visiting Polavaram project on May 6 as announced earlier and on May 7, he will go to New Delhi before his two-day visit to West Bengal on May 8 and 9.
Addressing a press conference in Undavalli on Sunday, the Chief Minister said there is nothing wrong in visiting the Polavaram project or for that matter reviewing an ongoing project. He pointed out that in Telangana, the Chief Minister is reviewing Kaleswaram Project and Mallanna Sagar and the Prime Minister is also reviewing programmes every day.
“Beyond election duties and officers on elections, they (EC) cannot interfere in regular administration, that is none of their business,” he observed.
The purpose of his visit to New Delhi is to hold discussions with other stakeholders (parties) as the review petition on VVPAT will be coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court. The TDP chief will also visit West Bengal, which also suffered due to rains. On the proposed Cabinet meeting, he said it would be held next week. “We will review the drought situation, damage due to the cyclone and preparedness for Kharif. This time, owing to canal bund works in Krishna and Godavari deltas, the sowing for Kharif crop will commence by mid-June,” he said.
The TDP chief condemned the comments of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election rally in Ramnagar in Bihar on AP bifurcation and “failure” in administering it properly and at the same time claiming that harmony exists between Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand which were formed during the NDA regime.
“Modi forgot that the case of Andhra Pradesh is different. The region (Telangana) where the capital city was located, demanded separate state and not Andhra Pradesh. He should clarify as to how many times he negotiated between two States to settle the issues between them. Was he not the one who forgot to fulfil the promises made to Andhra Pradesh?” he asked.
Lashing out at Modi’s ‘support’ to the YSRC, he pointed out that during the election campaign in Visakhapatnam last year, Modi said the BJP will never enter into a tie-up with the YSR Congress party.
“I visited New Delhi 29 times seeking fulfilment of State bifurcation assurances. Modi, instead of supporting our cause, started criticising us by saying that how it is possible to fulfil all the assurances within five years,” he said.
Naidu claimed that the Modi government resorted to harassing the TDP leaders in the name of Income tax and ED raids after the TDP ended its alliance with the saffron party. “The Modi government released `450 crore towards backward regions of Telangana and took back the amount of `350 crore released to AP. Modi has been resorting to cheap criticism for political mileage,” he said
“Modi has no moral right to comment on AP until he sanctions special category status to AP,” he said and blamed the Prime Minister for the deteriorating Centre-States relations. He said Modi’s comment that 40 MLAs of West Bengal are in touch with him sends a wrong signal. Condemning the attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, he said the BJP, which used institutions to target its opponents, is now resorting to physical attacks.
Exuding confidence that TDP would win elections in the State, he observed that the YSRC is playing mind games understanding that it will be on the losing side. On JC Diwakar Reddy’s comments that many people have not recognised Chandrababu Naidu’s efforts in development and welfare of the State, the TDP chief said if the people did, the elections would have been a one-sided affair like the one in Singapore. He said there is still time for their getting results, like Singapore government.
While blaming Narendra Modi, Jagan Mohan Reddy and KCR for corrupt practices during the elections, he said he respects Kerala people, who, according to him, look down upon those who offer or take money for vote.