Former Municipal Administration Minister and educationist Ponguru Narayana says that the numerous projects that got sanctioned and executed during his tenure between 2014 and 2019 have not reached the beneficiaries after the change of guard in 2019. He hopes that the people of the Nellore City constituency will vote him back to power so that they can reap the benefits of those projects.
In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Narayana unveiled his ambitious plan to develop the city into ‘Smart Nellore’, not just by building physical infrastructure but also by providing employment and livelihood opportunities for the people here.
With the TIDCO houses, underground drainage system (UDS), Shadi Mahal and other infrastructure development activity that began during the TDP regime almost reaching completion, Mr. Narayana plans to take them forward if he is elected again.
“Nellore voters have seen what I have done before 2019. The facilities are ready but not served to the people. If seeing is believing, they will surely support me,” he says.
The Ph.D. holder in statistics strongly believes in his prediction.
Rubbishing YSRCP’s claim of bringing English medium, Mr. Narayana recalled that he, as the Minister, had issued the G.O. to launch the same in municipal schools before 2019. “The same YSRCP, as the opposition party, objected to the idea then,” he says with a smirk.
With the TDP promising 20 lakh jobs after coming to power, Mr. Narayana eyes a chunk of them for the youth in Nellore and plans a project to get the dropouts to complete graduation.
“Many young workers are toiling in retail outlets. I plan to motivate them to complete graduation, at least in correspondence mode, to be eligible for our skill development program. Several volunteers working for a paltry honorarium actually hold PG and professional degrees. With an industrial tie-up, we will ensure 100% local employment,” he says, revealing his vision.
To counter the lethargy typically associated with urban constituencies, Mr. Narayana has formed micro-level teams. As many as 3,000 influencers/activists have been mapped to 94,000 households, divided into 240 polling booths, which makes 30 voters to be motivated by an activist.
“This is better than the TDP’s State average of 60 voters per worker and the volunteer system that handles 50 households each,” he explained.
The truck with BJP may be a threat to a constituency having 54,000 Muslim votes, but Mr. Narayana nonchalantly recalls his outreach projects such as infra upgrade at the 400-year-old Barashaheed Dargah, permanent building for the fish market and civic support at Mansoor Nagar in the city’s 42nd division that got submerged till the first floor during the 2015 flood.
“My predecessor got 22% votes in Muslim localities, but though I lost in 2019, I got 42% votes here,” he points out.
With the support of Nellore Lok Sabha candidate Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy, Mr. Narayana plans to bring several central projects to Nellore city in the next five years.
