Minister Ramesh flays Naidu for flouting GO-1 on public meetings

Vijayawada: Housing Minister Jogi Ramesh has slammed Telugu Desam chief, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, for provoking TD cadre to attack the police, despite causing the death of 11 persons, and asked him whether he had taken the permission for a public meeting in Kuppam.

Speaking to the media here on Wednesday, the minister asked Naidu how he lost his temper against the police when they raise objection to the conduct of a public meeting without obtaining prior permission from them.

Referring to the GO issued by the state government imposing curbs on public meetings on roads etc, the minister said Naidu did not bother even to read the GO. “The Indian Police Act was implemented since 1861 and the police acted on that basis even today,” he pointed out.

The minister said the five crore people of AP welcomed the GO while only Naidu was opposing it. He said if Naidu conducted the public meeting on a ground, nobody would stop it.

Referring to Naidu’s claim for Kuppam assembly segment, the minister said the former CM was not having his vote, address and even a house in Kuppam. “What development did he carry out in Kuppam so far,” he asked.

As for the TD’s poor performance in the recent elections in Kuppam, where the party failed to win even a single seat in both rural and urban local bodies, the minister said the people rejected Naidu and his party.

AP BJP chief Somu Veerraju said it was not fair for the police to stop TD chief Naidu’s tour of Kuppam assembly segment. He blamed both the TD and the YSR Congress for behaving in “anti-democratic manners to promote their selfish interests instead of developing the state.”

Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan opposed the GO-1 by saying that if the GO was existing earlier, Jagan Reddy would not have been able to undertake his Padayatra as the leader of the opposition then.  He also criticised the government for disallowing TD chief Naidu from a visit of Kuppam and holding of a public meeting there.