Beware of BJP designs

Kadapa: In a fresh offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for leaving the reorganised state of AP to its fate, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday wanted to know why the Centre remained callous to his repeated pleas for honouring the commitments made in the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014.

Speaking at Dharma Porata Deeksha at Proddatur, Naidu sought to enlist the support of the people in his struggle against the Centre for justice to the state. "I want your support as I am planning to intensify my agitation," the Chief Minister said at the largely-attended public meeting.

Naidu, in his lengthy address, covered a wide gamut of issues that the state was facing, including the latest "sham" attack on Opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy at the Visakhapatnam Airport.

Naidu reiterated that he was against politics of murder and said that he wanted the officials investigating the case to ferret out the truth - if the youth had an intention to kill Jaganmohan Reddy or whether he had only wanted to injure him and at whose instance he had attacked Jagan Reddy.

In Andhra Pradesh, it appears the BJP has some ulterior plans to engineer attacks on leaders and thus create law and order problem. "This is against the spirit of the Constitution," he said. He pointed out that ‘Operation Garuda" was in a way coming true as the BJP-led NDA was plotting to de-stabilise the state government using YSR Congress and Jana Sena.

"The BJP is resorting to wicked politics. Income Tax raids on the residences of TDP sympathisers are part of the grand conspiracy of the Centre against the state government, he added.

The Chief Minister, however, pointed out that neither his party nor himself was afraid of such incidents because he had not resorted to any irregularity. The state government was working in the most transparent manner possible.

“During my 40 years of political career, I have remained clean. Late YS Rajasekhar Reddy had commissioned 26 inquiries against me but none of the commissions or committees could prove that I had resorted to any financial impropriety," he said.

Referring to the Polavaram project, Naidu said that its execution was his life ambition and that 60 per cent of work was over despite obstacles created by the Centre. "By May 2019, Polavaram would be able to release water under gravity," he said.

Naidu once again committed himself to setting up of a steel plant in Kadapa district. "If the Centre does not come forward, I will lay the foundation stone for it within a month," he declared. If the Centre was really interested in setting up a steel plant, he was ready to allot land at the rate of Rs 4 lakh per acre. "We will also give remission in stamp duty and supply power at Rs 1 less per unit.

Responding to the plea of the local party leaders on completion of the second phase of Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanthi (GNSS), the Chief Minister said that he had already sanctioned Rs 3,500 crore for the project and ordered calling of tenders in the next one month.

Naidu, referring to the issues that are plaguing the nation, wanted the people to understand how the country had suffered in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Democracy is at crossroads now," Naidu said, pointing out how the administration had failed on all fronts.

"It is all because of the BJP dispensation at the Centre that the CBI's image is at its nadir and the rift that is growing with each passing day between the RBI and the Central government.

Defending TDP striking an electoral alliance with the Congress in Telangana, Naidu said he had gone for it because it was in the national interest to check the continuance of the saffron brigade at Delhi.