AP Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy may well assert that his government has fulfilled 90 per cent promises in the first year of its rule. He can claim that 77 of the total 129 promises made to the people were implemented. In the past one year, however, reverse and reverse tendering became the buzzwords both in the corridors of power and outside in the 365 days of Jagan’s government in Andhra Pradesh. Studies conducted by the Union commerce ministry, the World Bank and the National University of Singapore ranked Andhra Pradesh as India’s most business-friendly state for three successive years in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Jagan Reddy asserted that it would be through his Nava Ratnalu programme alone that the lives of poor could be uplifted. TDP president and former chief minister, however, dubbed Jagan’s rule as governance in reverse gear. “1 year of mass destruction,” he tweeted. Naidu made a blistering attack on Jagan’s governance saying it was at best “anti-development, retrogressive and regressive.
“The Andhra Pradesh government has lost all its credibility. This government has stalled the Amaravati capital city. It has affected farmers who had sacrificed their land for the project. Farmers are now protesting braving the heat and the lockdown. The retrogressive policies led to the flight of investments and industries from Andhra Pradesh leading to lack of job opportunities to youth. Power tariffs have been hiked. In the name of prohibition, the government has exorbitantly increased liquor prices and sold cheap liquor, brands that no one heard affecting people’s health.” The Jagan government stalled major projects like the Polavaram and a new state capital remained incomplete, and new taxes were imposed on the common people.
Telugu 360.com looks at Jagan’s Nine Blunders and HC’s Nine Jewels
What Jagan did or undid in last one year
The Nine Blunders
1) Imposed heavy financial burden on the people by hiking power tariff
2) Scraps the free sand policy and announced a new one which led to sand scarcity and construction workers suffered
3) Took Rs 80,000 crore loans in one year, not a single developmental project was implemented
Reviews and renegotiates PPAs entered into by the previous Naidu government
4) Does away with Amaravati capital city project, clears proposal to have three capitals – Vishakapatnam (executive), Amaravati (legislative) and Kurnool (judicial)
5) Withdraws 14 acres given to Lulu Group for a commercial complex in Vizag
6) Cancels Rs 3,217 cr contract awarded to Navayuga Engineering for a hydel power project
7) Scraps 4,731 acre land allotment to Navayuga group company for an SEZ in Nellore district
8) AP’s lifeline project of Polavaram has been stalled
9) Adani Group’s solar-powered data storage and technology park remains in a limbo, Lulu Group is not keen on fresh investments in AP, Reliance had once threatned to withdraw its investment proposal
AP has turned business unfriendly in the last one because of the hostile approach of Jagan towards companies and investments that had Naidu could attract to the state. Further, the one year rule has severely undermined the democratic institutions and subverted parliamentary democracy by his authoritarian rule. In the one year, Jagan and his team had to cut a sorry face in more than 60 legal disputes, which is a record set by any state government in losing court cases. The state government’s ordinance to remove Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar as State Election Commissioner is a grim pointer to how Jagan and his team have tried to destroy constitutional bodies like the State Election Commission. Let us look at the important cases that AP government had lost in the High Court
Nava Ratnalu (Nine Jewels) from AP High Court
1) Ramesh Kumar was shunted out by the government by reducing the term of office for the SEC from five years to three through an ordinance. SC upheld SEC’s decision to put off elections. HC reinstates Ramesh Kumar as SEC
2) High Court served contempt notices on 99 people, including Bapatla MP Nandigam Suresh, former Chirala MLA Amanchi Krishna Mohan, Gudivada Amarnath, Sakshi senior journalists Kommineni Srinivasa Rao and Prasad Reddy
3) HC asks govt to remove party colours, YSRCP govt adds one more colour. The court served contempt notices against Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney and other top officilals for violating its directive to remove YSRCP colours on government buildings and panchayat offices
4) HC directed the CBI to probe the highhandedness of the police in arresting Dr Sudhakar Rao
5) The court also revoked the suspension orders against senior police officer A B Venkateswara Rao, directed the Jagan government to reinstate him
6) HC had struck down the government’s move to make English medium compulsory in government schools in AP
7) The HC directed the state government directed the CBI to probe the murder case of Jagan’s uncle Y S Vivekananda Reddy
8) The Jagan government lost its case on PPAs in HC. The court had ruled that the state cannot seek changes to an agreement signed between a distribution company and a developer
9) The court scrapped the GO to increase reservations to BCs, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the local bodies from 27% to 34%
