NTR Jr. lashes out at Chief Minister

Corruption affects development in the State, he says

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Only Naidu can steer State to growth

TDP will scrap the coastal corridor if voted to power

The Telugu Desam Party’s star campaigner N.T. Rama Rao junior described the Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy as a modern Bhageeratha who flowed rivers of corruption and one who bequeathed the State’s wealth to businessmen.

The Congress party was mired in corruption because of which development took a backseat while even natural resources were plundered by the ‘ruling elite’, he observed.

Speaking in roadshows here on the temple town of Annavaram on Saturday, Mr. NTR junior has also suggested to the people to not cheat themselves by once again voting for the Congress party during whose regime the State had backtracked by 50 years. It would be equally perilous to believe in the change factor being advocated by Praja Rajyam party.

“Chandrababu Naidu is the only experienced driver who can safely steer the bus (Andhra Pradesh) to safety (growth)”, he asserted, while seeking the people’s mandate for the TDP.

Resuming his State-wide electioneering tour after the previous night halt at Payakaraopeta in Visakhapatnam district, Mr. NTR junior said farmers in East Godavari district were badly hit by government’s failure to ensure adequate supply of water to crops in Godavari delta, due to which crops in nearly five lakh acres have withered.

Government could neither prevent illegal impounding of Godavari river water by other States nor optimally utilise available water in irrigation systems like Yeleru reservoir.

TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao had got a statue of Sir Arthur Cotton installed on the Tank Bund at Hyderabad as a fond remembrance of the instrumental role played by him in the transformation of Godavari districts into India’s ‘Rice bowl’.

Cotton barrage had changed the entire landscape and brought about a Green revolution in the country. “Unfortunately, the same fertile region is craving for help today as the government had other priorities”.

Coastal Corridor

Mr. NTR junior further alleged that the government’s intention behind acquiring arable lands in the names of the Coastal Industrial Corridor and Special Economic Zones was to do real estate business.

The farming and fishing communities were the worst affected as their lands were forcibly taken over in advance without compensating them adequately.

If it comes to power, the TDP would scrap the coastal corridor.

TDP Polit Bureau member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, party district president N. Chinna Rajappa and former minister Chikkala Ramachandra Rao were among those present.