Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Y.S. Sharmila on April 13 (Saturday) slammed the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) for its failure to achieve the promised Kadapa steel factory.
Addressing an election meeting at Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district, Ms. Sharmila said she had fond memories of this place, as not only she and her brother Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, but also her father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy were born here.
“Jammalamadugu is a backward area full of rocks and mounds. YSR was determined to build the proposed Kadapa steel factory in the area though the project was to cost around ₹30,000 crore, as it would generate employment opportunities for more than one lakh local people,” she said, adding that the project would have been operational by now had YSR been alive today.
She said the successive governments had confined the project to performing ‘bhumi puja’. After the ‘bhumi puja’ performed for the project by YSR, his successor and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu repeated the act when his party came to power. Later, under the YSRCP rule, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy performed the ritual twice on two separate occasions. Not a single brick was laid till date, she said.
Ms. Sharmila criticised Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy for not raising the steel plant issue even once in Parliament. She said people of the State had pinned lot of hopes on Mr. Jagan, who, as an Opposition leader, made many promises, but did not fulfil any of them after coming to power.
SCS issue
“He had sharply criticised the TDP government for not being able to achieve Special Category Status (SCS). He had then mooted en masse resignation of MPs from all parties in the State to build pressure on the BJP government at the Centre. But after coming to power and with a substantial majority in Parliament, he did nothing to ensure justice to the people of Andhra Pradesh,” she said.
Ms. Sharmila said, unlike under YSR rule when farmers were a happy lot, now they were denied subsidy even on drip irrigation technology.
The YSRCP government had miserably failed on all fronts, she alleged, adding that unemployed youth had been waiting endlessly for jobs. Instead of implementing the promised prohibition in phases, the government had taken complete control over the liquor business and had been resorting to gross violation of excise policy, she alleged.
Ms. Sharmila’s cousin Narreddy Suneetha said they were fighting to prevent resurgence of faction feuds in Kadapa. “Our only demand is that people guilty of crime should be punished adequately,” she said.
Sharmila retorts aunt’s remarks
Meanwhile, Ms. Sharmila, while referring to the comments reportedly made by Y.S. Vimala Reddy, sister of former slain MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, said she was only referring to the records made available through a proper CBI investigation and not accusing anyone based on rumours.
Ms. Vimala had reportedly accused Ms. Sharmila and Ms. Suneetha of causing “irrefutable damage to the family honour” by projecting Mr. Avinash Reddy as an accused in the murder case.
“The sisters are accusing their own cousin based on the confession made by one of the accused in the murder case, which is not fair,” Ms. Vimala reportedly said, and appealed to them to reconsider their decision to launch a tirade against their own cousin based on “flimsy legal grounds.”
Alleging that Ms. Vimala Reddy’s family got financially strengthened with the contract works given by the YSRCP government and hence was speaking in his favour, Ms. Sharmila told the media in Kadapa district that “due to old age, my aunt seems to have forgotten the brutal murder of her brother at the hands of family members. I urge all to ignore her comments.”
