Ball is in government's court, says Mudragada Padmanabham

Kakinada: Fasting Kapunadu leader Mudragada Padmanabham denied permission on Saturday afternoon to a team of doctors to conduct medical tests on him, telling them that he was ‘well and healthy’.

He had allowed the doctors to run some tests earlier in the morning. Mr Padmanabham reiterated on Saturday that he was willing to hold talks with the state government.

“Boddu Bhaskara Ramarao approached me with certain proposals on Friday night and made certain amendments,” he said, intending to wait for the response of the state government.

“The ball is in the government’s court and we are not making unreasonable or unrealistic demands. This is our last struggle for reservations,” he said.

Mr Padmanabham found fault with chief minister Chandrababu’s statement that the state’s financial condition was not good.

He said that Chandrababu Naidu was spending crores of rupees on ‘unnecessary projects’, such as Pattiseema, and others.

“Chandrababu has acquired 33,000 acres of land for the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. Another 50,000 acres belonging to the forest department is also on the cards. He is acquiring land for the construction of the airport. The state government has planned to vacate 33 villages for this purpose, 13 of which have a high Kapu population. How has he pooled funds for these projects. Why is he not able to allocate Rs 2,000 crores for the welfare of Kapus?” he asked.

Mr Padmanabham added that Chandrababu Naidu had uttered ‘several lies’, promising the waiving of loans for agriculture and self help groups, abolition of the Kakinada Special Economic Zone and providing jobs to the youth. But, he had not fulfilled his promises and was mocking farmers and self help groups women with loan waiving schemes, he said, adding that Kapus would not ‘keep silent if Chandrababu Naidu wanted to cheat the Kapu community’.