KADAPA: Two ministers in the Kiran Kumar Reddy government, hailing from the same district, hold diametrically opposite views on the ongoing government’s mass contact programme, Prajapatham. While one trashes it, the other sees a virtue in it.
Minister for health and family welfare DL Ravindra Reddy, known for making acerbic remarks, has described the ongoing Prajapatham a useless programme. Participating in Prajapatham at Rekulakunta village in Brahmamgari Matham mandal on Monday, he said the programme was meant for ministers and public representatives to know and solve the problems of the people but ministers were in no position to solve the problems. ``One may agree with me or not, I am stating the fact,’’ he said.
Reddy said the programme was introduced by former chief minister YSR in 2004 to enable people’s representatives, ministers and, most importantly, officials to take note of grievances of the people and solve them. But till date not a single problem had been solved through the programme, he asserted.
“Though surplus government land have been distributed to landless poor in five phases of land distribution, the beneficiaries do not know where their land is. When the government proposed the sixth phase, I raised the issue. Besides, the government failed to provide seven-hour continuous power to farmers,’’ he said.
When a farmer urged the minister to secure sanction for a lift irrigation scheme, he bluntly refused to do anything. “At no point will I encourage lift irrigation scheme, whether I get votes or not. I am totally against lift irrigation schemes.’’
In a stance diametrically opposite the health minister’s, minority welfare minister NMD Ahmedulla said Prajapatham very much enabled the government to know the problems of villagers and solve them on a priority basis. Participating in a programme in Ramapuram, he said water and power were big problems and, through Prajapatham, govt would understand the problem and try to solve it.