Jairam advises Naidu to bid adieu to NDA

Tirupati: Congress senior leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh advised Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to visit New Delhi “30th time” to say goodbye to NDA coalition.

“During his 44-month tenure as Chief Minister of divided Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu has made 29 visits to New Delhi and the result was a big zero. So, I ask the CM to make final 30th visit to Delhi to end his support of the NDA government,” he said while addressing a press conference here on Sunday.

He alleged that Prime Minister Naredra Modi and his government had never took seriously whatever has been assured in AP Reorganisation Act for the people of Andhra Pradesh. Though Naidu was supporting Modi government, he had has failed miserably in extracting what is the legitimate right of the people of the state and the only thing he was bothered about is increasing Assembly seats from 175 to 225 so that defectors can be rewarded he said.

Referring to the oft repeated criticism by the Chief Minister that bifurcation was carried out in an irrational manner, he said, “If so, why don’t they come out with amendments to make it rational? Not one amendment has been suggested so far.” Without implementing the provisions of reorganisation Act how can they say that it was irrational or unscientific, he said.

“For instance, Section 90 of the Act says that the Central government should fund and execute Polavaram Multi-purpose Project. Now, it is being executed by contractors of TDP choice which violates Section 90 of the Act.

Dugarajapatnam port was an assurance in the Act but not implemented. AIIMS in Mangalagiri, IIT and IISER in Tirupati, IIM in Visakhapatnam, Tribal and Central Universities were all part of the reorganisation Act,” Jairam explained.

The Congress leader reminded that The AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, and then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurances had the full approval of M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley. “Both of them have full knowledge of the Act and the six commitments made by Manmohan Singh, including Special Category Status to AP,” he stressed.

Stating that BJP would never help the state and TDP had been unable to get what is due to the state, he said justice can be done to the people of AP only by Congress party when it comes to power at the Centre.

Referring to the Rs 100 crore cancer research institute in Tirupati for which he himself has had laid foundation, he lamented that all that came up was foundation stone only despite the passage of four years.

“In 2014, during Naidu’s first visit to New Delhi, representing a responsible party, I took him to several Union ministers including Jaitley and asked them to expedite the implementation of the Act. If their alliance was genuine, BJP could not have acted in the way it had acted,” he observed.