VISAKHAPATNAM: Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana on Sunday demanded the NDA to roll back its proposal to privatise the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant before its leaders begin their election campaign in North Andhra.
Speaking to mediapersons on Sunday, he said leaders of the TDP, JSP and BJP have no right to visit the region without clarifying their stance of the privatisation of VSP.
Asserting that the YSRC has given top priority to leaders from Backward Classes (BCs) during seat allocation, he highlighted that the ruling party gave tickets to BCs in all Lok Sabha seats in North Andhra. “On the other hand, the TDP has not allocated adequate seats to these sections. The NDA partners, too, have not ensured social justice in the seat allocation,” he noted.
The TDP has returned to the NDA only to get Z plus security for Nara Lokesh, Botcha quipped. Accusing the yellow party of forging an alliance in a bid to protect its leaders and not for the larger interests of the State, he remarked, “Though I have worked for more years as a minister compared to Lokesh, I don’t have such security.”
Further, he mocked the alliance partners for fielding leaders who are not from the region. Alleging that TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and his leaders were obstructing the volunteers from carrying out their duties, Botcha questioned, “Who will hand over pensions to the elderly and poor? Is it possible to open bank accounts for them now?”
Accusing the TDP of politicising the disbursal of schemes meant for welfare of poor, he said though DSC notification was issued before the election schedule was announced, the opposition party lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India to stall it.”
Stating that the government will follow the instructions of the ECI, he asserted that the DSC exam will be conducted after the elections. Further, he promised to notify DSC every year.