Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is determined to make Visakhapatnam the capital city and there is no stopping it, YSRCP Rajya Sabha member V. Vijaya Sai Reddy has said.

“But when will it happen is for the Chief Minister to decide,” he said on Tuesday.

He was reacting to reports in a section of the media that said that the government was trying to hide facts concerning the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Visakhapatnam and purposefully showing it low to enable a swift shift of the capital.

‘False propaganda’

“There is no need to hide facts, or project Vizag as a safe city by showing a low count. Facts cannot be hidden in such a pandemic and, moreover, it has been decided to make Vizag the capital, and even COVID-19 cannot stop it,” Mr. Vijaya Sai Reddy asserted, and accused TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu of resorting to a false propaganda in this regard.

“Lockdown in all the containment zones in the district will continue till May 3, and there will be partial relaxation in the other areas,” he said.

On extension of the lockdown, the YSRCP leader said, “The Central government has given us broad guidelines, basing on which we have formed ours. In the future, we will abide by what the Union government decides.”

‘Schemes will continue’

Referring to economic revival, he said efforts were on to shore up revenues and bring down expenditure. “No welfare scheme will be stopped,” he made it clear.

Admitting that health infrastructure in the government sector needed to be strengthened, he said the pandemic was a learning experience.

“Keeping this in mind, we will go ahead with the Chief Minister’s plan of having one medical college with an attached hospital in all the 25 parliamentary constituencies in the State,” he said.

On the fate of the migrant workers in the district, Mr. Reddy said the government had given a kit containing essential items worth ₹700 to each of the 9,800 workers identified in the Visakhapatnam parliamentary constituency and 7,000 in Anakapalle. “This apart, the GVMC, several NGOs and other government agencies have been told to take care of them at the shelter homes,” he said.