Vijayawada : Perni flays Naidu for ignoring development of Machilipatnam

Vijayawada : Former minister Perni Venkataramaiah (Nani) lashed out at TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu for ignoring his promises of developing Machilipatnam on all fronts during his rule and making 'baseless allegations' against the state government when it is taking steps to lay foundation stone for Machilipatnam port in May, besides taking up other development activities.

Addressing the media at party central office at Tadepalli on Thursday, he listed out a slew of promises made by the TDP Chief during the 2014 elections for the development of Machilipatnam including the construction of Machilipatnam port, establishment of IT companies, prawns industry and agriculture allied industries, housing for the poor, construction of new railway line between Machilipatnam and Repalle, addressing the hardships of gold covering workers and others were left out.

"None of the promises made by the Opposition leader for the development of Machilipatnam were fulfilled and on what credibility Naidu visited Machilipatnam without keeping up his promises," he questioned and dared him for an open debate on welfare and development done for Machilipatnam during YSRCP government and previous TDP rule. Highlighting the welfare done by YSRCP for Machilipatnam, he said that the state government is going to construct the Machilipatnam port within the lands owned by the government without giving any scope for land acquisition from the farmers.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is likely to lay the foundation stone for the works during mid of May which will come into operation in the next two years with four berths capacity. Apart from that the State Government has also given house sites for over 25,000 people in and around Machilipatnam and power subsidies and drinking water facilities for gold-covering industry workers, he said.

Reacting to the remarks made by Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao on the Centre for backing its proposal to privatize the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant with the involvement of his government, the former minister said that it was Chief Minister who had initially written to the Centre to allocate captive mines to the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and opposed the strategic disinvestment of the steel plant, besides suggesting several alternatives to bail out it from losses.

Taking a dig at the remarks made by Telangana finance minister T Harish Rao, he said that he was intentionally resorting to mudslinging on the YSRCP government for his political mileage. If Telangana government was really committed to the welfare of Andhra Pradesh people, why it was opposing the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme of Andhra Pradesh, which lifts water for the Pothireddypadu canal and illegally constructed Dindi and Palamuru Rangareddy irrigation projects.