Hyderabad, March 10: YSR Congress president and Leader of Opposition Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy on Monday dared Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and TDP to pull out of the NDA government if they felt Centre did not do justice to Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget.
Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy posed the challenge during a discussion on motion of thanks to Governor’s address initiated by the ruling party members T. Sravan Kumar and Kuna Ravi Kumar in the Assembly here on Monday. The provocation came when the TDP MLAs accused the YSRC leader and his party for remaining silent though the Centre failed to do justice to the State.
Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy, who was politicising land pooling process though farmers voluntarily gave 33,000 acres of land, remained silent when the Centre meted out a raw deal to the State in the Union Budget and provided mere Rs.100 crore to Polavaram project and no funds for capital city. “It was ironical that Mr. Reddy did not utter a word as he was scared of court cases pending against him and not concerned about people’s welfare,” Mr.Ravi Kumar said.
An irate the YSRC president then hurled the challenge at the ruling party but Mr. Naidu was not in the House. Clarifying that his party leader Somayajulu spoke against Union Budget, Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy said it was not necessary for the party president to respond on each and every issue.
The Speaker had to adjourn the House for the day when the YSRC members rushed into the well in protest when Mr. Ravi Kumar repeated that the YSRC chief was scared of criticising Centre because of cases pending against him.
During the debate there were several heated exchanges between the ruling and Opposition on the land pooling process itself. The TDP MLAs reiterated that farmers and people reposed their faith in Mr. Chandrababu Naidu and voted him back to power as they believed he alone would deliver a world class capital and put the State back on growth track.
But Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy and his party men who invested in lands in Donakonda opposed the land pooling in Thullur with a vested interest, they said.
They did their best to spread canards and came out with lies to disrupt the land pooling process but in vain, they added.
Objecting to the charge, Mr. Reddy said they wanted the government to utilise government and degraded forest land for the capital and not acquire farmers’ land for real estate. Minister Atchannaidu said they were ready for a day-long debate on who acquired lakhs of acres of land forcibly from farmers including 28,000 acres for Vanpic for a single person and turned them into real estate business.
