People See Chandrababu As Man Of Hollow Promises  

Kuyyeru, West Godavari District: Draksharamam is known as one of the Pancharamams, the southern Kashi, abode of Sri Bhimeswara Swamy. It is also one of the eighteen Shakti Peethams with the shrine of Mankiyamba Ammavaru. It is therefore a pilgrim centre which attracts millions of devotees every year. My Padayatra proceeded through this sacred town located in Ramachandrapuram today. It had started raining last evening and the downpour would not let up. The roads were flooded and keeping the adverse conditions for people to join me in the Padayatra, I set out after some delay. People brought their infants and toddlers to me, some asking me to name them and others to initiate them into the world of learning (Aksharabhyasam).

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Swarnalatha, a student of degree second year, met me along with members of her family. She had compiled a book filled with photographs and news items of our family members, which had appeared over the years in various papers and journals. She also added over the past nine years, her own comments and observations stating that she had begun this entire exercise in class seven. The regard and affection she had for our family was truly touching. I thanked her and sister, Suvarna profusely, and moved on.

A leader in the real sense, learns about the needs of the masses and caters to everything they require without the people having to ask for anything. When people told me that my father, the late Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy, was one such ruler, it made me feel immensely proud. They told me of his contribution to this constituency, though he had not given any assurance or made any promise. He had set up a veterinary and agricultural Polytechnic here, in his time. He made the banks of the river Godavari secure by getting walls built, along more than 21 km, so that people were free from the fear of drowning. He got development work of more than 800 crores done in this constituency.

At the same time, they were furious that Chandrababu Naidu had not fulfilled any of the promises he made at the time of elections. He had given many assurances at a public meeting held on January 5 2017 here, but nothing was done and Ramachandrapuram remains unchanged. At that meeting he had promised to transform this place, build houses for all, put an underground sewerage system in place, build a ring road for Draksharamam and gave many more commitments. The people here described in detail, the contrast between the credibility which my father enjoyed and the deception with which Chandrababu Naidu was associated.

Everywhere in my Padayatra, people have been describing at length the manner in which Chandrababu Naidu had been cheated them after having made several promises and commitments at the time of elections. I was really surprised to find that nowhere had people ever said that he had fulfilled any promise.

I have a question for the chief minister—in the many files to which you committed your signature, did you ever sign one which declared that 20 litres of mineral water would be sold at Rs.2? Leave alone mineral water, is it not true that there is an acute scarcity of drinking water in the state? If this is the pathetic state of affairs in Konaseema which has an abundance of water resources, what is the condition of other places elsewhere in the state? Isn’t your neglect directly responsible for this? Not having completed pending projects, failing to initiate fresh ones and ignoring the existing projects, did you not create this crisis?