TDP leader Gottipati Ramakrishna has slammed the Jaganmohan Reddy government for totally ignoring the manifold sufferings of people of Andhra Pradesh after the YCP came to power by making countless promises during elections. He asked why CM Jagan Reddy was not reminding himself of his pre-poll slogan ‘Nenunnanu, Nenu Vinnanu’ (I am, I heard) to extend a helping hand in these days of Coronavirus and fuel price hike troubles to the common public in the state.
Mr. Ramakrishna said that in the past 20 days, the petrol and diesel prices have gone up by Rs. 10 per litre in Andhra Pradesh. It is posing serious problems to all sections of people from employees, school children, auto drivers, taxis to daily wage workers who travel to work places on mopeds and shared autos. Neither the CM nor his Ministers tried to pay attention to this issue till now. As a responsible Opposition party, the TDP is demanding immediate roll back of this fuel price hike to provide relief to the people.
The TDP leader said that the AP Government can afford to waive the hiked prices as it was getting a share of Rs. 30 per litre of petrol sold and also Rs. 25 per litre of diesel. In addition to a share of 40 per cent from the Centre, AP was collecting Rs. 2.76 per litre on petrol and Rs. 3.07 on diesel. It is time the YCP regime should respond sympathetically to provide relief to the people, especially farmers who depend heavily on use of diesel for agricultural activities.
Mr. Ramakrishna said the TDP reduced petrol and diesel prices by Rs. 2 when the prices rose above Rs. 75 per litre during its previous regime. Similar gesture should be extended by the Jagan Reddy government considering the unusual problems being faced by the people in view of virus attack and consequential restrictions.
Mr. Ramakrishna said while the Kerala Government took effective measures to stop Coronavirus spread in that state, the AP Government was busy with its own political activities causing a spurt in the infections. The Ministers and the officials were relaxing after releasing just a small health bulletin everyday. Kerala reported first COVID cases in the country and, now, that state has successfully prevented the virus spread by working closely with all sections of the people there. Whereas, there was no proper review of the virus fighting measures at the state level in AP in recent days.