If You Have Fast-Tracked Progress, Why Is Your Manifesto Missing From TDP Website?  

Karakuduru, East Godavari District: There are many examples to illustrate the watering down of local bodies and institutions by the Telugu Desam government in these four years. Yet another instance came to light as I listened to the Dalit Sarpanch of Kumarapriyam Panchayat. It was yet another example of the brazen violation of the provisions of the Constitution by the Telugu Desam leaders. He is a Sarpanch only in name. It is the local TDP leaders who control everything. Worse, they look down upon him. The Sarpanch’s questions are probing ones—If a democratically elected village leader has no powers, of what use are such positions in a system? Why have laws, or elections, for that matter? I thought for a moment if this is what Chandrababu Naidu meant by Dalita Tejam!

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Gajam Suryakantham, a BC Mahila Sarpanch of Sahapuram had a similar story to tell. Not only do the local ruling party leaders block development work, but to make things more difficult for her, they have foisted false cases upon her relatives. They have been termed criminals and are being troubled with rowdy-sheets against them. Unable to endure this torture, one of them, Satyanarayana committed suicide. This is the state of BC communities under Chandrababu, who fakes concern for them. Incidentally, the Panchayati Raj ministry is lorded over by his illustrious son.

I was deeply moved to see the pathetic condition of Nukalamma, who had been working as a sweeper in Pedapudi hospital, for 20 years. She works in both day and night shifts in multiple roles as ayah, attender, nurse and sweeper. Yet she does not even earn Rs.2,000 per month for this challenging and difficult multi-tasking she does! When there is no recognition for such a remarkable employee, what does one call this—bonded labour?

Students of Peddada High School told me that poor and eligible girl students were not being given the bicycles promised to them. The few cycles which were distributed hinged upon TDP leaders’ recommendations. How does one describe these leaders who have spared no effort to politicise schools and corrupt tender minds?

As I approached Domada, it began to rain again. People came to me in large numbers in pouring rain, some to greet me and others to narrate their problems to me. Allu Varalakshmi told me that her husband, who had been struck by paralysis, was not being issued the required certificate. Sirapararapu Satyanarayana was being denied his pension as his age had wrongly been registered in his Aadhaar card, but it was proving to be a Herculean task to get it corrected. For years, he has been going around government offices in vain.

Mane Appa Rao came to me saying that he had not been getting the allowances due to him, because the officials claimed that his Aadhaar card had not been linked to his bank account. There were several others among the deserving poor, who fulfilled all eligibility criteria and yet were being denied their share of welfare schemes. Among them were contract employees who were not being paid for months on end. All of them added up proved that government neglect and apathy alone were responsible for their plight.

The Telugu Desam government diluted welfare schemes on one pretext or the other. At other times, it resorted to vindictive and partisan politics.

It is shameful to see this government celebrate 1500 days. The TDP government has only looted the state on various counts. While the TDP leaders are celebrating 1500 days in office, the masses look forward to the early end of this tyrannical and insensitive rule. It is not the number of days in power which count, but the quality of rule and the extent to which the government has touched the lives of the common poor. What has it done to dispel the prevailing darkness from the lives of the common citizens and how has it transformed their state? This counts, more than the number of days in office.

I have a question for the chief minister—your government has been trumpeting from rooftops with prominent announcements that it has completed 1500 days successfully in office and that the state is moving rapidly on the path of progress. You have been claiming that 99% of election promises have been fulfilled. If that is indeed true, why have you removed the TDP manifesto from the party website? Are you not deceiving the people of the state by claiming that the state is in a fast-track development mode when you could not achieve special category status to the AP, or any of the other assurances in the bifurcation act? If the Centre or other states were to ask you why AP needed special category status when you are taking it to such heights of progress, what answer do you have?