Your Fake Fast Cannot Fool Anyone, Chandrababu

Mylavaram, Krishna district: During the course of my padayatra today, a few employees of the 108 services met me and narrated an experience which moved me deeply. Kumari of Perakalapadu suffered from a heart attack on March 31 at around midnight. The 108 ambulance which responded late in the first place, broke down halfway through its journey. When they called for a backup ambulance, it reached them after a few hours and without minimum facilities such as oxygen and essential medicines. Moreover, the vehicle itself was in a rickety old state. It was a frightening ride for the patient and her relatives, all the way to the hospital. They had their hearts in their mouths till they reached the hospital. I was shocked to learn of the negligence underscoring this incident because it is symptomatic of the attitude of the government towards 108 services.

Read: Sea Of Humanity Greets YS Jagan In Mylavaram

To begin with, there aren't enough ambulance vehicles and those reasonably well-equipped are fewer still. The staff are underpaid and they complain that they had not been given their salaries for the past three months.

The number of vehicles being deployed by the 108 services has come down steeply from the time of my father the late Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Ironically enough while many of the vehicles languish in sheds, they are shown as operational on paper! Even the CM's dashboard reflects the same.

To see people pour out spontaneously onto the streets in support of the bandh call on Monday, disregarding Chandrababu Naidu's threats to implicate protesters in cases was heartening. This voluntary participation of the masses is truly a victory of the people and the reflection of their collective will.

I have a poser for the chief minister. Did you not endorse the vandalisation of buses and public property which accompanied protests when you were in the Opposition? Why is it that you have distanced yourself from the bandh now that you are in power? Why did you try to foil attempts of people to participate in a bandh for AP's lifeline, Special Category Status. Why do you keep harping on the message that protests should be carried out in Delhi? Despite being fully aware of the fact that the Centre would be forced to climb down if 25 MPs of the state were to resign, why are you undertaking a fast in Amaravathi and to deceive whom? Is this not duplicity and deception? Does this not amount to betrayal of the cause?