HYDERABAD: A sizeable crowd gathered at caretaker Finance Minister Etela Rajender’s camp office in Huzarabad to apprise him of their grievances even as the early morning chill began to wear off.
The TRS heavyweight emerged after a while and assured the distressed of action as soon as he was elected to power, even promising to remember each one of their names before setting off for his campaign. His haste to the campaign could have been triggered by a barrage of criticisms against the implementation of various government policies in the area, interactions with people from Huzurabad town, Rangapur village, Narsingapur and other neighbouring localities revealed.
Women from Rangapur said they were unable to find work. “In 365 days, we get just around 75 days of work — that too by migrating to neighbouring villages,” a labourer said. Tenant farmers from the area criticised the Rythu Bandhu scheme saying they have to depend on work from landowning farmers and that their expenses were increasing.
Among the five mandals in Huzurabad constituency, Veenavanka and Jammikunta seem to be tilting towards the Congress. Residents Express spoke to called Rajender “boring” and said that they would vote for Congress candidate Padi Koushik Reddy who is young and “seems enthusiastic”. At the Andhra Bank branch in Veenavanka mandal headquarters, a woman working from Ghanmukkula pointed out how Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in a meeting in Huzurabad did not utter a single word about self-help groups. “Why should we vote for the TRS?” Bonagiri Yadamma, the leader of a self-help group said.
For some youngsters such as Anil Reddy who is pursuing B.Tech and Chinna who is in the final year of his undergraduation, NOTA is the best option. “There are no real leaders here,” they said.
Apart from this, there are other problems in the constituency such as the delay in the completion of Bhagiratha drinking water project and the non-implementation of 2BHK Scheme. In Jammikunta, people have been struggling to solve their drinking water problem since summer.
However, several senior citizens from Narsingpur village praised the State government and said they would vote for the TRS. Radhamma, a senior citizen, praised the state government’s pension policy and said it was helping her buy medicines.