The Telugu Desam Party will handover TIDCO houses to beneficiaries if voted to power in the 2024 elections, TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh said on Saturday.
Addressing a public meeting at Markapur as part of his Yuva Galam padayatra on Saturday night, he said it was unfortunate that the construction of the houses, started by the Andhra Pradesh Township And Infrastructure Development Corporation during the previous TDP regime, remained incomplete in the last four-and-a-half years. ‘‘Only 10% of the civic infrastructure works need to be completed. We will hasten them and hand over the houses within 100 days of coming to power,’‘ he promised.
The long-pending Veligonda irrigation project would be completed within three months of the TDP assuming office to permanently end the water woes of the parched parts of Prakasam, Nellore and Kadapa districts, he said amid loud cheers on the 162nd day of the walkathon. A majority of the works had been completed by the time the TDP demitted office in 2019, he recalled.
He drew a thunderous applause when he promised to carve out a Markapur headquartered district acceding to the popular demand of the people of the western parts of the district.
Releasing copies of registered land documents purportedly made by YSR Congress Party MLA from Markapur K. Nagarjuna Reddy and his benamis, he said a special investigation team (SIT) would be constituted by a future TDP government and proceedings initiated to confiscate illegally obtained parcels of land. The same would be distributed among the poor.
Even land parcels belonging to the Chennakeshava Swamy temple and a church in Podili had not been spared by the landgrabbers, he alleged. Drug mafia ruled the roost in Markapur with the backing of the ruling party. Its leaders are complicit in the smuggling of ration rice to overseas destinations through the Krishnapatnam port, he alleged.
Lamenting that the slate industry, Markapur’s pride is under crisis, he said royalty charges and power tariff would be brought down and steps taken to revive the past glory of the mining industry in Prakasam district, also renowned for the world-famous black galaxy granite.
