Botcha Satyanarayana terms Amaravati farmers meet 'TDP drama'

Amaravati: Asserting that the state government is committed to the decentralisation of development, minister for municipal administration Botcha Satyanarayana said TDP is orchestrating political drama in the name of Amaravati farmers to incite regional clashes and create a chaotic atmosphere in the state.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the minister said that the entire Maha Padayatra by Amaravati farmers consisted of TDP leaders to safeguard their ill-gotten lands and plunder through real estate. He said that the TDP's agenda is only limited to the development of 29 villages, while leaving behind the rest of the state and thus trying to benefit by trying to turn farmers' Mahasabha into a political meeting. He said TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu will have to face people's rejection once again if there happens to be an unfortunate incident during the Tirupati meeting.

Unlike Naidu who wanted only a single community, a single region to flourish, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was committed to develop all three regions and thus proposed to make Amaravati as legislative capital, said the minister.

He said that the government is not against the Amaravati region, but wanted to provide equal opportunities through decentralised development and added that they had been providing a better package to the Amaravati farmers than that of the previous government.

Recalling the construction of Nagarjunasagar and Polavaram projects, Satyanarayana said that many farmers have given their lands for the projects and were only compensated as per the government norms, which is a true sacrifice rather than those who gave up their lands for real estate benefits. The minister said that the opposition leader has been trying to gain by using farmers' weaknesses and provoking the sentiments of the people to create disturbances in the State.

The minister challenged Naidu to openly announce their agenda of confining themselves to 29 villages. He said that TDP leaders have been falsely propagating that the people of north Andhra and Rayalaseema regions have welcomed Amaravati as a sole capital. He recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders had openly stated that Naidu used Amaravati and Polavaram as ATM card.