Jagan, Pawan on the same page, says Ganta

Vijayawada: Human Resources Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao on Thursday stopped short of placing his political rival and YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and Jana Sena Party ally Pawan Kalyan in the same league with respect to their stand on the RK Beach protests over the Special Category Status (SCS) in Visakhapatnam.

Terming Visakhapatnam as a peaceful city and financial hub of the State, the HRD Minister on Thursday blamed Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan for protest in support of Special Category Status (SCS).

While addressing media persons here, the Minister slammed Pawan Kalyan and YSRC chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy for conspiring to damage the brand image of the port city by protests and bandhs, when the city was spruced up for hosting the prestigious two-day CII Partnership Summit.

Ganta alleged that Jagan has no guts to fight the Centre over SCS and hence holding protests by misleading the youth.

As several industrialists from across various countries and across the nation have arrived at Visakhapatnam to participate in the CII summit, which is scheduled to be commence from Friday, the Minister suggested that the opposition parties and civil society organisations take up their protests at any time after the Partnership Summit by seeking police permission.

He also assured them that the government would not restrict anyone from taking up protests in a democratic manner, but they can obtain permission from police and can go ahead with their protest, he added.

He warned that the government would take stern action against the forces attempting to damage the brand image of Visakhapatnam city and obstructing the State development.

Stating that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was striving hard to bring funds for the State development, he said that the Centre was also according funds to Polavaram project for its early completion.

When the Centre denied SCS to the State citing technical reasons and assuring to fulfil all the promises to the State, the CM was forced to accept Special Package, Ganta maintained.

What will be the use with sticking to the demand of SCS without concentrating on development projects like Polavaram, the Minister asked.

He also said that the government was eyeing investments to a tune of Rs 6.83 lakh crore during the CII Partnership Summit.

He disclosed that about 2,000 delegates and about 100 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from different companies from over 50 countries will participate in the Summit and the government had already received confirmation regarding 450 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) during the event and added that the focus will be laid on industry, infrastructure, urban development, tourism and information technology sectors.

Refuting allegations of YSRC leader Botsa Satyanarayana on the last year’s CII Summit, the Minister clarified that all the 328 MoUs which were signed in last Summit were in various levels.

Asserting that the government was ready for debate over the MoUs, he challenged Botsa whether he would quit politics if his allegations were proven wrong.

Explaining about the status of various projects for which MoUs were signed during last CII Summit, Ganta said a total of 328 companies had signed MoUs with the government through which investments estimated at Rs 4,67,577 crore would be made and could provide employment to 9,58,896 people.

About Rs 4,62,234 crore of investments were already received by the State and 3,82,362 jobs were created, he said.

TDP Rajya Sabha member C M Ramesh was also present.