TIRUPATI: Accusing Telugu Desam president and former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu of neglecting his own constituency, Kuppam, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Friday that “the local MLA” was “local” to Hyderabad and “a non-local” to Kuppam.
Addressing a public meeting in Kuppam – the first after he took charge as Chief Minister — Jagan launched a scathing attack on the opposition leader, labelling him a “non-local” and ridiculing him as a “Pedda Manishi” – and himself as “Mee Bidda”.
“Naidu never lived in Kuppam to know the problems in this segment, let alone solve them. In the 45 years of his political career, Chandrababu had been the MLA of Kuppam for 33 years. He used the BC vote bank but did nothing for them. The YSRC government, on the other hand, launched several welfare schemes for BCs and others,” the CM said.
Making some interesting remarks on what he called Naidu’s brand of “Samajika Nyayam” (social justice), Jagan said the TD chief had “squeezed” the backward classes, a sizeable vote bank in Kuppam constituency, for his political benefits. “But, he did not do anything to provide them social justice. This constituency was never meant to be represented by someone from an OC community like Chandrababu,” the CM said.
“Ever since TD came into existence, BCs have been deprived of the opportunity to represent Kuppam. Instead, Chandrababu sat over it for the past 33 years although he doesn’t even have voting right and no permanent house in Kuppam,” Jagan said.
The Chief Minister claimed that his government has provided water, municipality status and a revenue division to Kuppam.
He said, “From the Rs 6.5 crore Reddypalli-Ramakuppam power substation to a Railway under-bridge and an integrated municipal office complex, to sanctioning of Rs 20 crore to the Dravidian University, this government did a lot for Kuppam. But, Chandrababu, known for his backstabbing politics, didn’t bring in any development project for the region though he was chief minister for 14 years.”
Accusing Naidu of deliberately failing to address the drought-related issues faced by Kuppam region, the Chief Minister said Naidu knew well that the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi branch canal alone could bail out the farmers and the people as a whole here from the drought situation. “But he didn’t take up the project as he thought it would be a barrier to his dominance.”
The Chief Minister promised to complete the Handri-Neeva project works in the next six months. He also announced the sanction of two reservoirs with a capacity of .77tmc and .33tmc to be built at a cost of Rs 250 crore in Gudupalle and Santhipuram mandals. He also promised release of Rs 100 crore for the development of Kuppam, Ramakuppam, Santhipuram and Gudupalle mandals in Kuppam constituency.
Ridiculing the TD’s slogan ‘Job Kavalante Babu Ravali’, the chief minister said more than 5,000 youngsters from Kuppam are going to Chennai and Bengaluru in search of jobs every day. “Your local MLA (Naidu) did nothing to address such issues in his home constituency in the last three decades,” Jagan concluded.
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