Vijayawada: Panchayat raj and rural development minister Nara Lokesh lambasted the Left parties for creating hurdles in the development of the state. The Communist parties are to be blamed for non-development of Vijayawada, he said. Mr Lokesh was addressing the party’s Vijayawada East constituency coordination committee meeting here on Thursday. He said 28 per cent of the public representatives had not attended TD’s Mahanadu and that it was not right on their part on skip the conclave citing silly reasons.
Mr Lokesh said all welfare and development programmes were being implemented successfully in the state despite deficit Budget. He promised to take a decision at the earliest on verifying the house pattas, improving the drainage system and resolving the problems relating to roads and street lights in the city. The opposition parties are trying to tarnish the image of the TD government with regard to demolition of houses in the city, he said.
The minister reminded about transforming Vijayawada into a clean city and said he was committed to it. “The development TD had brought about in three years had not happened in the last 10 years.” He alleged many were trying to create a rift between him and his father Mr Chandrababu Naidu. He said the government was trying to settle the Kapu reservation issue through a proper procedure but that the opposition parties were trying to create unnecessary ruckus on it. “In the wake of the carnage at Tuni in the past, the state government is trying to safeguard law and order in the state and that is why security has been arranged for Mudragada Padmanabham’s padayatra,” he said.
Mr Lokesh questioned YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy as to why the Kapu reservation issue, which was included in the Congress election manifesto in 2004, was not implemented till 2014. He said the public was not turning up for the opposition parties’ dharnas and agitations because the TD had fulfilled all the election promises it had made. “We are answerable to the public but not the Opposition,” he said. He lamented that many families were getting ruined due to drug addiction and said the TD has decided to take stringent action against all those involved in the racket.
