VIJAYAWADA: Terming the five-year governance of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy the biggest calamity to the State, Civil Supplies Minister and Jana Sena Party Political Affairs Committee chairman Nadendla Manohar said the former chief minister was limited to making political remarks instead of extending aid to the flood victims during his visits to the affected areas.
Speaking to mediapersons at the JSP headquarters on Saturday, Manohar found fault with Jagan for describing the floods caused because of record rainfall as man-made diaster. Mentioning that only three months completed after the formation of the coalition government in the State, he said the entire official machinery right from the Chief Minister to NDA leaders swung into action and stood by the people in the difficult times. However, YSRC leaders made politics out of the floods without extending any aid to the affected people, he remarked.
Observing that Jagan lost the moral right to speak on the calamity as it was Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, who made field visits to the flood affected areas, and stood by the victims, the Civil Supplies Minister said except blaming the government, the YSRC did nothing for the affected people. In fact, Pawan Kalyan donated Rs 4 crore (Rs 1 lakh each to 400 panchayats) and Rs 1 crore each to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from his own funds, and Jagan could not stand before the generosity of the JSP chief, Manohar said.
Accusing the previous government of neglecting the modernisation of Yeleru reservoir, he said a preliminary plan was prepared to modernise it at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore because of the initiative taken by Pawan Kalyan.
On crop insurance also Jagan was uttering lies, Manohar said and recalled the statement of Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan during his recent visit to Vijayawada that the previous YSRC government did not spend a single rupee on Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
Asserting that the TDP-led NDA government is going ahead to extend aid to all the flood affected people, Manohar urged the YSRC to shun politics at this critical juncture.