VIJAYAWADA: Accusing Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of giving priority to political benefits rather than the lives of people, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu has condemned the removal of N Ramesh Kumar from the post of State Election Commissioner (SEC) despite the fact that he saved the lives of people from the COVID-19 epidemic by postponing the local bodies polls.
In a teleconference with party leaders on Monday, Naidu said that the head of a Constitutional body was removed with utter disregard for established conventions and practices. Taking political advantage of everything seems to be the mantra for the Chief Minister, he said. Accusing the YSRC government of turning the COVID-19 quarantine into a farce, Naidu said that no isolation procedure was followed for new SEC V Kanagaraj who came from Chennai and for contractors who arrived from Hyderabad. But, common people and migrant workers were put to untold hardship on inter-state borders, which the TDP was condemning categorically, he said.
Naidu slammed the government for removing SEC over local body election postponement and suspending a doctor for requesting masks and a municipal commissioner for revealing lack of funds for giving PPEs to the frontline staff in coronavirus fight. Accusing Jagan of deliberately giving misleading information to the Prime Minister, he said that taking mandal as a unit instead of district for assessing Covid-19 impact was a ‘malicious’ act. Naidu demanded dismissal of Deputy Chief Minister K Narayana Swamy for his objectionable comments against Muslims related to spread of corona in the State.