The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government, which had indulged in outright sale of public lands for its selfish gains, in the past, has no right to criticise the YSR Congress Party government on the mortgage of lands in Visakhapatnam to raise loans from banks, Anakapalle MLA from YSRCP Gudivada Amarnath has said.
Like the TDP, the YSR Congress Party government has not sold or given land on lease to its cronies, but only mortgaged them to raise loans to tide over the difficult financial situation in view of the COVID-19, Mr. Amarnath told the media here on Monday.
The MLA explained that the State government was getting only about ₹3 crore to ₹4 core, a day, due to the pandemic during the last one-and-a-half years, as against the expected revenue of about ₹150 crore, a day. Despite the difficult economic situation, the State government has not reneged on its promises and was spending ₹1.10 lakh crore on implementing welfare schemes.
Referring to the allegations made by TDP leader Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu, he said that the YSRCP government has protected hundreds of acres of land, grabbed by the TDP leaders in Visakhapatnam, during the past two years. He alleged that records pertaining to hundreds of acres of land went missing during the previous government, and Mr. Ayyanna Patrudu as a Minister failed to act on it. Mr. Ayyanna Patrudu had also maintained a stoic silence when the TDP MPs tried to tarnish the brand image of Visakhapatnam that it was not suitable for railway zone headquarters and that the city faced the threat of submersion, Mr. Amarnath alleged.
Mr. Amarnadh said that the Opposition leader N. Chandrababu Naidu and the party leaders had made baseless allegations against the Chief Minister and the Ministers at a meeting of senior TDP leaders on Monday. The YSRCP MLA alleged that Mr. Naidu was spewing venom on the ruling party as he was unable to digest the success of the YSRCP and the support being given by the people not only in the Assembly elections but also in the municipal, panchayat and the latest ZPTC and MPTC polls.
The TDP leaders have made it a point to target the ruling party for anything and everything to show the YSR Congress Party government in a bad light. They were even trying to link the YSRCP government, Minister, Chief Minister and his family members with the drugs, detected at a port in Gujarat, Mr. Amarnath alleged.
He appealed to the DGP to initiate action against those responsible for trying to tarnish the image of the YSRCP leaders.
