Why Are You Scared If You Really Served People, Chandrababu?  

Turakanaiduvalasa, Vizianagaram district: Wherever I went on my Padayatra today, people recollected the outstanding contribution of my father late Dr YS Rajashekhar Reddy. All along the way we could see green fields dotting the landscape. People told me that this region had been turned green and fertile due to the pioneering efforts of my father who brought Thotapalli project to this parched area.

In every village along the Padayatra, people came to me with complaints of benefits of welfare schemes not reaching them. In Bijepuram, I met Mandagi Kumari, who lost her husband at a young age. She has nothing to fall back on and has not been given a house by the government. She does not get any widow pension either.

Ramamma of Gangampeta had been getting her widow pension for 13 years. After the Telugu Desam government came to power, they denied her pension on the grounds that she is working as a helper in the local Anganwadi. Shortly after that, she retired from service after having attained the age of superannuation. However, to date she has not been getting her pension nor does she have a job! She was deeply worried as to how she would raise her five children. There were many more such instances I came across on the way. In the village Sikharam, Panamma, an 85-year-old woman was not getting her pension, Aruna Kumari a mentally challenged girl was being denied her pension, Venkataramana congenitally mute person was not getting his pension.

Women near the village of Chinakudama told me that bills for toilets were not being reimbursed. While this is the state of affairs on the ground, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu proudly tells people at a meeting in Anantapur yesterday, that the benefits of welfare schemes were percolating satisfactorily to all the segments of society in the state! His drum-beaters in the media try to propagate this message, but the truth is vastly different, as people know. Boddanna Gowramma lamented that her son, Ganesh, who had completed his B.Ed, had been waiting for the DSC exam to be held four years. He still remained jobless, she complained. Avanya, a Dalit, had completed her D.Ed, 6 years ago and has pinned her hopes on DSC. She sobbed saying that now with elections round the corner the TDP government has slashed the number of posts drastically and was holding a mini DSC. The government was deceiving the aspirants by modifying the syllabus a month before the examinations, she lamented.

Wherever I went on my Padayatra today, I met victims of AgriGold. Siblings Dasari Shiva Kumar and Santosh Kumari of Shikhabadi lost their parents at a young age. Planning for their future and the girl’s marriage, they sold their agricultural land and invested the money in AgriGold. Villagers expressed their anguish wondering what the future of these siblings would be now. There are 300 AgriGold depositors in Turakanaiduvalasa in a village of 400 people. They had paid deposits of over two and a half crores. Many of these victims came and met me. They expressed their anguish at the attempts of Chandrababu Naidu to grab Haailand assets. Korrada Eswara Rao from this village died of a heart attack stemming from his deep concern and worry over his AgriGold deposits.

An AgriGold agent, Dhanraj Balaji in Vinukonda committed suicide by falling under a train. Forty-four year old Vasantha Rao of Nandigama in Srikakulam district died of a heart attack. The deaths of these victims of AgriGold were deeply disturbing. Rubbing salt into the wounds of these victims, the chief minister ridiculed and humiliated and then arrogantly raised his hand at an AgriGold victim, Siddeswar in Anantapur. What was the poor man’s fault? He came there to meet the Chief Minister and seek justice for victims of AgriGold. This is truly cruel and inhuman.

I have a question for the chief minister—you have been pleading with people telling them that the benefits of welfare schemes have been reaching them and they should stand by you. If you really did all the good work you claim to have done, where is the need to plead with people over and over again for support? Aren’t you ashamed of begging for people’s help to shield you after committing all the misdeeds you did over these years?

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