Vijayawada: Fisheries minister Seediri Appalaraju has challenged Telugu Desam chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu to say what he did for north Andhra during the 14 years of TD rule.
“I am ready to discuss this issue with anyone. During Naidu's terms, north Andhra was pushed back in development, he said at a media meet here on Tuesday.
Appalaraju said Naidu and other TD leaders were busy throwing mud at Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. “In the eyes of Chandrababu, does good governance mean Janmabhoomi committees? Did Janmabhoomi committees govern well? Rather, Janmabhoomi committees were the main reason for TD's defeat in the 2019 polls.”
Appalaraju claimed that good governance meant the volunteer system introduced by Jagan Mohan Reddy. “The village and ward secretariats are linked to them. Good governance is the administration we give in saturation mode, regardless of parties, politics and communities.”
Due to our good governance, poverty in the state has reduced to less than 5 per cent in the last five years, from 11.5 per cent during Naidu’s tenure, he claimed.
Ridiculing Naidu’s promise of providing 20 lakh jobs in the next five years at the rate of 4 lakh jobs every year, the minister asked how many government jobs Naidu gave when he was CM? “After Jagan Mohan Reddy became CM in 2019, he created 2.5 lakh new government jobs. About 6.5 lakh jobs have been provided through contracting and outsourcing,” he claimed.
He said Naidu should bear the responsibility for the thousands of deaths in Uddanam as he failed to resolve the problem of kidney ailments there.
