People vented their anger at Naidu, says Muttamsetti

People have voluntarily expressed their anguish at the way TDP president and Leader of the Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu treated the north Andhra region, and neither the YSRCP nor the government has any direct or indirect role in the events that have unfolded at the airport here, Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao has said.

“People are watching how Mr. Naidu is favouring Amaravati and discriminating against the north Andhra region,” Mr. Srinivasa Rao said while addressing the media here on Thursday evening.

“Mr. Naidu is trying to dent the brand image of Visakhapatnam, and people are angry with it,” the Minister said.

The Minister, however, said that the day’s events had nothing to do with what had happened to Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had been sent back from the airport when he, as Leader of Opposition, had come to the city to stage a protest during the Partnership Summit.

‘Ulterior motive’

Mr. Naidu was opposing the decision to make Visakhapatnam the Executive capital on the grounds that it was vulnerable to cyclones and located far from various parts of the State, forgetting that fact that he had became Chief Minister thrice and Leader of the Opposition only because of the TDP’s victory in the north Andhra region, the Minister observed.

“Mr. Naidu can come to attend the wedding. But in the last two days, he has been making provocative statements that YSRCP leaders are indulging in land-grabbing. He has come with an ulterior motive,” the Minister alleged.

During the TDP rule, the Ministers and MLAs had indulged in corruption, which forced a Cabinet Minister to lodge a complaint with the SIT constituted by the TDP government, Mr. Srinivasa Rao said.

Except for holding meetings at a star hotel, Mr. Naidu did nothing to develop Visakhapatnam, the Minister said.

Mr. Naidu also failed to do anything for the kidney patients of the Uddanam region, he alleged. It was Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy who, after coming to power, had sanctioned a super-speciality hospital there and a medical college at Paderu, he added.

On land pooling, the Minister said that it was meant for houses for the poor. A lion’s share of the 1.8 lakh applications received was from the four constituencies represented by the TDP MLAs in the city, he said.

MPs M.V.V. Satyanarayana and B.V. Satyavathi; MLAs Karanam Dharmasri, Tippala Nagi Reddy, Gudivada Amarnath, Golla Babu Rao and Annamreddy Aadeepraj; and VMRDA Chairman Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao were present.