VIJAYAWADA: YSRC leaders continue broadside against TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu for his defiance of GO 1, issued prohibiting public meetings and roadshows on national and State highways and municipal and panchayat roads.
Speaking to media persons on Saturday, Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana took strong exception to the remarks of Opposition parties against the GO 1 and suggested them to study its content before making further comments. “For the past 3-4 days, all these people are creating ruckus over the GO 1. Had they read the content? Was there any ban on public meetings and roadshows? It is not there. So why this ruckus?” he questioned.
Botcha asked the critics of the GO, are they not ashamed to accuse the government of hindering Naidu’s tours in the State. “Naidu and his friends are blatantly lying for political gain and misleading the people. Unfortunately, a section of media supporting him is parroting his lies instead of explaining facts. All the GO stated is that meetings should not be held on national and State highways and road margins and to take permission from police for holding meetings at a designated places. The GO was issued in public interest,” he asserted.
Explaining the reasons for issuing the GO, he blamed Naidu’s self-promotion mission for the stampedes at Kandukur and Guntur, in which several people were killed.
“Naidu is making mockery of laws of the land and trying to prove that he is above law. He is trying to gain public sympathy from everything by misleading the people. He is forgetting the fact that the people have seen through his tactics and put him in Opposition in 2019. But unfortunately, he is yet to learn a lesson,” he observed.
Demanding to know, should the government be silent, as Naidu’s meetings are leading to death of people, Botcha said the State government issued the GO to protect the public and prevent recurrence of untoward incidents. He asserted that never such incidents had happened during padayatras of YS Rajasekhara Reddy and YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, which went on for several months.
Reacting to the ‘Yuva Galam’ padayatra of Nara Lokesh, he maintained that Lokesh, who has no achievements to claim during his stint as a minister, has no credibility to undertake the walkathon.