YSRCP questions pre-budget meet in AP

Hyderabad: YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) on Wednesday came down heavily on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for holding pre-budget meeting in Vijayawada without inviting senior bureaucrats.

Addressing the press here, party senior leader G Srikanth Reddy said Naidu had taken along with him a 250-strong team for the pre-budget meeting, leaving out the Principal Secretaries of Finance, Revenue and other important departments. Inviting a posse of police officers to the meeting clearly shows that the TDP government was sending a signal to the farmers who were up in arms against the land pooling policy, he said.

The extravaganza was uncalled for and the inclusion of police force was only to scare the farmers who were not willing to part with their land in the capital region, he said. “What has such a big contingent of police to do with the pre-budget meeting? He asked.

The YSRCP leader also pointed out that while Chief Ministers of other States travelled in economy class, Naidu was using chartered flights and organising tours to Japan and Singapore for his favoured few.

On the other hand, the government set up a collection box (hundi) at the Secretariat to collect funds for capital formation. Reddy demanded that the government be accountable to every rupee it spent and as a responsible Opposition party the YSRCP would question the expenses.