Chandrababu’s Tyrannical, Corrupt Rule Is Anti-people

Pedakapavaram, West Godavari District:  I was fortunate to set foot here from where arose a tireless champion of tribal rights who fought against injustices being done to them, a great freedom fighter who fought valiantly against the might of the British and became a martyr to the cause of India’s freedom, Alluri Sitarama Raju. He was a lone crusader of justice and the fierce fighter for India’s freedom. In contrast, the rulers of today denied basic rights and facilities to the people of this this place from where this peerless soldier of justice and freedom, emerged.

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To see people going thirsty even as the mighty Godavari river flowed by these places, came as a shock to me.  This sorry state of affairs was caused purely by the narrow-mindedness of the ruling party and I could not believe what I saw. The myopia and partisan attitude which drives the Chandrababu Naidu regime has to be seen here to be believed. Leaders of the ruling party and their supporters occupied lakes and lakebeds and built multiplexes here. Intoxicated with power, another ruling party leader misappropriates funds earmarked for pensions! Janmabhoomi committee members declare those ineligible as eligible and mark them out as beneficiaries, and turn healthy individuals into “differently-abled.” In the bargain, the genuinely eligible, differently-abled individuals suffer the most. They are denied their due and are not given any pension. This is Chandrababu Naidu‘s regime, which is worse than that of the Britishers.

Women and men from Kolumooru village came to me holding bottles in which they carried water. The very sight and smell of the contaminated water was shocking. Even more shocking was the fact that they had to drink this water and had no other alternative.  They were caught in a bind—if they tried to dig bore wells, the land only yielded saline water and they could not afford to buy drinking water! They expressed their anguish about the circumstances in which they had to drink this water and feared not only for their own health, but that of their children. My heart became heavy with sorrow. If only the pipeline project to supply drinking water which had been started by my father, the late Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy, had been completed, things would not have come to this pass. People would not have suffered in this manner. It was only out of spite, only because the credit would go to my father, that the Chandrababu Naidu dispensation did not complete this project.  How insensitive and cruel this TDP government was towards the common people, can be gauged from this example, as well.

Ganta Srinivasa Rao, a differently-abled person from M.M. Puram, told me that eligible disabled were denied pensions in his village and worse, those who were already getting pensions meant for the handicapped, had become victims of discrimination on the basis of party loyalties. Their pensions had been withdrawn. Those who did not have even one per cent disability, but who are small-time leaders, workers or supporters of TDP, were given pensions, he observed.  He produced documentary proof which he had secured of how more than 40 people belonging to the TDP in his panchayat alone were given such pensions. He had photographs and documents which he obtained through an RTI application, which he showed me.  He added that though he brought this to the notice of local officials, the collector and even when these facts were highlighted in the media, there was no attempt from the government to check this blatant malpractice.

Fifteen years ago, when my father, the late Dr.  YS Rajasekhara Reddy was on his Padayatra in this region, people from this place met him at Tadepalligudem, because this area was not on his Padayatra route. They narrated to him at length the drinking water problems which plagued this region. Although he had not seen for himself the crisis of drinking water supply which people of this place faced, he sanctioned a pipeline project to mitigate this problem, amounting to Rs.30 crores as soon as he came to power.  Such was his vision and large heartedness as a leader! In contrast, although he had seen the problems for himself, Chandrababu Naidu is driven by narrow-mindedness of vision and has forgotten all the promises which he had made to the people here during the course of his padayatra. The residents of Kolamooru narrated his approach and insensitive attitude in detail to me.

I have a question for the chief minister—the saying goes that one can wake up a sleeping individual, but cannot wake up one who pretends to sleep. When Janmabhoomi committee members, Telugu Desam leaders and followers are resorting to injustices everywhere and looting the common citizens, how should one describe your silence? Incompetence? Inefficiency? Corruption? Injustice?