Praja Sankalpa Yatra Diary, Day 71: Apathy Is The Order Of The Day Under Chandrababu Rule

26 Jan, 2018 10:29 IST|Sakshi
AP Leader of Opposition YS Jagan Mohan Reddy

Nagaturu, Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district: As I browsed through the newspapers this morning, an item caught my eye. I found it very amusing. It said that officials inspected the school where Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had studied. Further, it said that this school which was in a dilapidated state would be repaired. What struck me as something odd is that it is only after the Leader of the Opposition visited this area and pointed out that the school the CM had studied in was in a complete state of neglect that the government appeared to wake up. This is the pathetic state of affairs here. As I walked further down, a group of women came to me and asked me, “Anna, does our village figure in the government’s official map? Is it listed in the official records?” Their question took me by surprise. These villagers from Varadareddi Kandriga had this genuine doubt— “Our village has neither roads, nor street lights, nor drinking water supply. It has no bus connectivity and no basic facilities worth the name. We don’t know whether the government is aware of our existence.” They lamented that they were unable to send their children to school.

I did not know what to make of this monumental scale of government neglect. I assured them of better days and that a brighter future lay ahead when Rajanna Rajyam would be ushered in, with their blessings.

Andhra Pradesh is dotted with many such villages under the TDP regime. On the one hand, the government makes the common man pay taxes through his nose and on the other, it denies him minimum facilities. How does one explain this irreconcilable paradox?

Along the way, a 32 year-old woman met me. Her tale of suffering left me deeply moved. Her husband had been working as an auto driver and got infected with HIV AIDS and died of the disease eight years ago. Tragically, tests revealed that she too had become a victim of the deadly disease. That point marked the beginning of her suffering. “Anna, I don’t know the sin I committed, but I have been subjected to a lot of tragedy and pain. My in-laws have denied me my due when it comes to my share in my husband‘s property, my relatives shun me and my only child, my daughter, has abandoned me. The entire village treats me like an outcast. Her sorrowful tale moved me profoundly. She has been taking medicines and has been advised to eat healthy, nutritious food. When she has been leading a hand-to-mouth existence, where can she get nutritious food from?

“Despite my weakness and feeble condition, I want to earn my livelihood as a labourer, but no one is willing to give me any work,” she said. “The government had promised to give Rs.1000 to people like me, but I have not received a rupee,” she said. “I have neither the strength to protest nor the courage to die,” she added.

It is important to change the lives of such victims and to do something constructive for them. A change in the mindset of people needs to be brought about and a solution must be found to the problems of such distressed women. They should be provided with some means of employment. However, the Chandrababu Naidu government is indifferent to the plight of such suffering poor.

The insensitivity with which our chief minister has been treating this problem is all too evident and the apathy that marks the attitude of government officials under his rule, makes it worse. In conclusion I have a question for the chief minister—you had promised survivors of the dreaded HIV disease Rs.1000 per month as pension. Is it just on your part to deny even these victims their due? Is anything more inhuman than leaving such victims to fend for themselves?

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