Minister challenges Naidu, PK to view harbours\' progress, terms PK as voice of Naidu

VIJAYAWADA: Terming Pawan Kalyan as a politician lacking moral uprightness, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Minister Seediri Appalaraju said on Friday that the Jana Sena leader has been acting as per the Telugu Desam script.

Addressing the media, the minister said Pawan Kalyan was a pawn in the hands of TD chief Chandrababu Naidu and making baseless and derogatory comments against the YSRC government and chief minister Jagan Reddy. He challenged Pawan, Naidu and others to go with him to view the progress of the fishing harbours at Juvvaladinne, Nizampatnam, Machilipatnam and Uppada.

He asked why PK began talking about the backwardness of North Andhra only after 2019, and not when his ally Telugu Desam was in power.

Referring to PK's allegations vis-a-vis the migration of fishermen, the minister asked whether the Jana Sena chief was aware of their plight. No one focused on developing the harbours in AP after Independence. Only two harbours were available since then in the state. It showed the negligence of the previous governments including the TD dispensations, he said.

He said it was Jagan Reddy who took the initiative to set up nine fishing harbours in AP and the CM was also taking care of fishermen.

Appalaraju said the chief minister would lay the foundation stone for a harbour construction with an outlay of Rs 365 crore near Ranasthalam, where Pawan Kalyan held his Yuva Sakthi meeting.