Jagan drove AP backwards by 30 years, says Naidu

TDP supremo and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday accused Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy of driving Andhra Pradesh backwards by 30 years with his retrogressive policies.

Naidu said in just three years, Jagan Reddy has destroyed all systems and damaged the AP brand image beyond repair. It was shameful on the part of the government to invite tenders in which contractors were being asked not to go to court for bill payments.

The TDP chief said an arbitrary condition was laid down in tender documents, denying chance to the contractors to seek legal relief. This condition was enough to say how helpless and inefficient the Jagan government has been all these years.

Naidu said the image of the government suffered a huge setback when it asked contractors not to bring pressure for bills in tenders relating to Krishna delta repairs. They also released a press statement to this effect. Whether the rulers would consider this a shame or not, it was indeed a big blow to the government’s image.

Chandrababu Naidu asserted that the pathetic condition of the YSRCP government was further exposed when it imposed such meaningless conditions in a tender for just Rs. 13 Cr. No other State government would have faced this situation in the country till now. How could the government deny the right to contractors to go to court when they would not receive timely payments?

The TDP chief charged CM Jagan with pushing the whole State into such a pitiable crisis. Over Rs. 1.50 lakh crore bills were still pending. The adamant government was not realising what sort of negative impact this huge pendency would have on the contractors and the employees of their firms.

Naidu said that lakhs of employees were losing jobs in construction, trade and services sectors due to non-payment of bills by the government. The ruling YSRCP should realise what impact the bankruptcy of these firms would have on the whole society.

Chandrababu Naidu wondered how the Jagan government could complete multi-crore irrigation projects when it could not give timely payments for just Rs. 13 crore worth tender works. Could this government ever be able to construct airports, steel plants and three capitals?

The TDP chief asked the Chief Minister to explain whether denial of decent livelihoods was social justice. Destroying the lives of crores of people and driving them away to other States would never bring development. By reversing AP from development towards retrogression, Jagan had done severe injustice to several generations of the AP people.