Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation and the faulty implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), saying that in the last 70 years, “the foolishness of demonetisation and Gabbar Singh Tax” was not done by anybody.
Gandhi made the remarks while addressing an election rally in Uchahar in Rae Bareli, the parliamentary constituency of his mother Sonia Gandhi.
In an interview to a television channel on Friday, Modi had dismissed the economists’ speculation that demonetisation led to a rise in unemployment. “People are looking for excuses to discredit the huge decision of demonetisation,” the Prime Minister had said.
Gandhi also said that there was only one Prime Minister who stole from the poor and his name was Narendra Modi.
“Modi had lied to the country by dubbing the note ban as a fight against black money and corruption. If it was a fight against black money, why didn’t any thief stand in the queues outside the banks and the ATMs following the implementation of demonetisation in 2016,” Gandhi asked.
Accusing the Prime Minister of not filling the 22 lakh government vacancies, the Congress President said, “If the Congress comes to power, it will fill the posts within one year.”
Gandhi also promised that if his party formed the government in Uttar Pradesh, it will waive farm loans.
After addressing the rally, Gandhi also interacted with the media and accused Modi of not fulfilling his promises of providing jobs and waiving farmers’ loans.
“Modiji only lied to the nation in the last five years. The rate of unemployment is at a 45-year high and the entire youth of Uttar Pradesh know that. In all his speeches, Modiji talks about giving employment to 2 crore people. But today farmers are committing suicide as the promise of waiving their loans has not been fulfilled,” Gandhi said.
“When we came to power in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, we waived farmers’ loans in just two days,” he claimed.
The Congress President also took a jibe at BJP’s promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh into the bank account of every citizen.
“Modiji doesn’t talk about employment to the youth or the Rs 15 lakh promise. He has nothing left to speak. There is a teleprompter from which he reads his speeches and that controls him,” Gandhi said.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere in the Election Commission’s order imposing a ban on the release of a film on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the ongoing elections.
After the apex court order, the movie can be released only after voting in the last phase of elections is over on May 19.
The producer of the film contended before the court that the poll body order suppresses the right to freedom of expression and that it also opposes the clearance granted by Censor Board, the authority which grants permission for public screening.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the clearance from the Censor Board could not be used an instrument against the EC order.
The bench observed that if the poll body is convinced that the film could tilt the balance, the film could influence voters, and give political mileage to one party, then Censor Board certificate has no relevance.
The top court also rejected granting permission to screen the promo of the film before its formal release.
Earlier, in a report to the Supreme Court, the Election Commission restated its decision to ban the release of PM Narendra Modi’s biopic during the ongoing polls. The poll body officers after watching the film opined that there is a high probability that a particular political party will gain electoral mileage if the film is permitted to be released during the ongoing polls.
Indicating the main reason for EC’s ban on the film, the EC in its report said it believes that the drama revolving around the lead character has the potential to tilt the electoral balance in favor of a political party, therefore, the poll body is justified in its decision to release the film after the last phase of voting on May 19.
The Election Commission submitted its report in the court through its counsel Rakesh Dwivedi. The bench directed the EC counsel to also share the report with the film’s producer, who had moved the apex court challenging the commission’s decision to ban its release despite getting the nod of the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC).
The EC in its report said that the movie is pivoted on popularizing the character Narendra Modi and also portrayed him as a leader with a no-compromise approach.
“The content of the movie is uni-dimensional,” said a source.
Earlier, the poll body had said that release of the film is not justified after the model code of conduct has been put in place. The film producer has said that EC’s ban is simply over-exaggeration.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who filed his nomination from the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency on Friday, has movable and immovable assets to the tune of Rs 2.51 crore.
As per the affidavit submitted by the Prime Minister, out of the Rs 2.51 crore, movable assets comprised Rs 1.41 crore and immovable assets were valued at Rs 1.1 crore.
As on March 31, 2019, Modi had Rs 38,750 as cash in hand.
In the last five financial years, Modi had declared his annual income as Rs 19.92 lakh (2018), Rs 14.59 lakh (2017), Rs 19.23 lakh (2016), Rs 8.58 lakh (2015) and Rs 9.69 lakh (2014).
The primary sources of Modi’s income are salary from the government and interest received from the banks.
As per the affidavit, the Prime Minister does not have any criminal charge against him.
Prime Minister Modi offered prayers at the Kalabhairava Temple in Varanasi. Later, he filed his nomination papers before the returning officer. Large number of BJP leaders from different places arrived in Varanasi to take part in the nomination. There was lot of euphoria and upbeat mood among the BJP cadres on the occasion.
The sympathisers arrived in large numbers to catch a glimpse of Modi. His election win is considered a certainty once again considering the rival candidates in the field. Congress initially planned to field Priyanka Gandhi here but finalized the name of Ajay Rai who was defeated in 2014. No reason was given as yet for the withdrawal of Priyanka who is presently campaigning for the victory of the party candidates only. The BJP leaders hope that Modi will win with a far greater majority this time. Prior to the nomination, Modi took out a huge rally in Varanasi town with enthusiastic participation by party cadres.
Fifty turmeric farmers from Nizamabad district of Telangana plan to contest the election against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency to highlight their problems.
After making their presence felt in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency in April 11 election, a group of farmers on Tuesday announced their decision to take on Modi, who is seeking re-election from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
However, none of the 178 farmers who contested from Nizamabad will be filing their nominations in the Prime Minister’s constituency.
The All India Turmeric Farmers’ Association president Daivasigamani said 50 farmers, majority of them from the scheduled castes and women, would undertake “Chalo Varanasi” programme to file their nominations.
They plan to file their nominations on April 28, two days after Modi files his papers. Polling in Varanasi is scheduled in the last phase on May 19.
They said they will file their nominations as Independent candidates to highlight their demands for higher remunerative prices for turmeric and red jowar and setting up of Turmeric Board in Nizamabad. They made it clear that they will contest to highlight their issues and not to oppose any candidate.
Daivasigamani said the final number of farmers who will enter the fray in Varanasi will depend on securing signatures of 10 local voters each and arranging the money to pay as deposit.
The group felt that their issues were sidelined as the farmers who contested from Nizamabad constituency targeted Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate K. Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao. The farmers, who appear sympathetic to the TRS leader, claimed that in the last five years she fought to get Centre’s approval for setting up of Turmeric Board.
A total of 185 candidates including 178 farmers had contested from Nizamabad forcing the Election Commission to go for a record number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to conduct the polls. The poll body used 12 EVMs of M3 version in each of the polling booths.
Kavitha, who is seeking re-election from Nizamabad, had alleged during the campaign that her political rivals were instigating farmers.
She had urged farmers to contest against Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi to highlight their problems.
Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi came down heavily on Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu for stamping Centre’s schemes as his party’s policies. Moreover, Naidu is using Polavaram project for drawing funds from the Centre and not spending them properly, maintained Modi.
The Prime Minister has asked Andhraites to go through newspapers three years ago and notice what’s Naidu is criticizing about the BJP-led NDA government.
“That’s why we call Chandrababu Naidu as U-turn Babu. Naidu was praising the NDA government earlier and now started criticizing for no fault of the BJP. This is just for political gain only. The Centre has so far released over Rs7,000 crore funds for Polavaram. What’s been the progress so far? TDP and previous government didn’t do anything for Polavaram project for over four decades. The NDA government has only released Rs7,000 crore funds. However, they’re not utilized properly. The U-turn Babu is using Polavaram project as ATM machine to draw funds from the Centre. Andhraites should realise about what’s happening,” said Modi.
Addressing at a public meeting in Rajahmahendravaram on Monday afternoon, Modi further criticized Naidu and his party for posing question over surgical strikes, while ignoring Pulvama attack by militants.
“Such statements can only appease Pakistan. This is showing the innerside of Naidu. Andhra Pradesh people prefer to maintain their own heritage and culture. BJP is committed to protect Andhra heritage and culture, while Naidu prefers his own Heritage company,” remarked Modi.
The TDP is exposing Modi on the issue of injustice to AP.. TDP National Spokesman Lanka Dinakar took strong objection to PM Modi’s visit to the backward Rayalaseema region as the Central Government had not provided funds and ignored development of the backward regions in Andhra Pradesh in the past five years. Like a ‘Chor’, Modi has taken back Rs. 350 cr that was already deposited in the AP account towards the backward regions financial assistance.
TDP says that Modi has no moral right to visit backward regions in AP as he promised to provide Bundelkhand-like package to AP but had refused to fulfill the promise of providing Rs 24,500 crore under this to the ailing state. He asserted that Modi was a self-proclaimed Chowkidaar who has eventually become a Chor who is safeguarding the interests of those who are plundering the nation.
The heartless Modi had not bothered to honour the commitment of fully granting Rs 16700 cr of which only Rs 3,900 was given till now. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu sent many reports for these funds but the BJP government did not care to do any justice to the state. Modi is apparently the reason for CM K Chandrasekhar Rao to dishonour the commitments to transfer properties belonging to AP share after the bifurcation.
TDP accused Modi of deliberately provoking and using Jaganmohan Reddy to give a raw deal to the struggling people of Andhra Pradesh. The evil trio of Jagan, KCR and Modi are crushing AP state with the sole objective of destroying the TDP and thereby to create scope for future growth of their parties in the state.
Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah along with several union ministers will campaign in Telangna for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held on April 11, 2019. Without any alliance, BJP is contesting on its own in the country’s youngest state.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh and other central ministers such as Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Nirmala Sitharaman, Suresh Prabhu, Sushma Swaraj, etc, will take part in the poll campaign in the state. BJP has submitted the names of ministers, who will campaign in Telangana, to the Election Commission (EC).
BJP is also lining up several other ministers including UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Other senior ministers like Uma Bharathi, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Smriti Irani, Hema Malini, Syed Shahnawad Hussaina and party general secretary Ram Madhav will also address at public meetings in Telangana. Leaders from Telangana like Bandaru Dattatreya, the Secunderabad sitting MP and was denied ticket this time, and state BJP president K Laxman will also actively participate in the campaign, said a senior BJP leader.
Ram Madhav has termed Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao as a dictator and criticized his decision to forge alliance with Razakars’ party AIMIM. BJP doesn’t want to use Ram temple issue for the electoral gain, he said. Ram Madhav said that BJP is set to win the Mahbubnagar MP seat after 20 years. DK Aruna’s entry into BJP from Congress will strengthen the saffron party in Mahbubnagar district.
The recent near-war situation with Pakistan has created pro-Modi mood to some extent among the voters in many parts of the country. But Andhra Pradesh stands as an exception to this. Unlike in other states, strong anti-Centre feelings are continuing across AP largely because of the betrayal sentiment. The strong feeling is that the BJP government at the Centre did not do enough to address the injustice done to AP at the time of bifurcation.
There’s election time speculation every where on how much impact the surgical strikes will cause on voters in favour of the BJP. PM Modi and other BJP leaders have talked a lot on how their party government fought bravely with Pakistan unlike the earlier Congress government. Such election rhetoric improved the ratings for Modi every where except AP.
Analysts say two factors are mainly responsible for this scenario. The AP people are still very angry against the separate statehood and how their future prospects are damaged without fulfilling the reorganization promises. Secondly, CM Chandrababu Naidu’s experience and tactful leadership in highlighting the betrayal of AP’s bifurcation promises.
Even a fortnight after the air strike by Indian Air Force fighter jets on terror camps in Pakistan’s Balakot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to dominate the popularity charts despite a dip in his rating from the peak witnessed during the first week of March, but his distant rival Rahul Gandhi has shown only marginal signs of recovery.
The latest ‘state of the nation’ tracker poll by CVOTER-IANS based on the data collected till March 14 showed that Modi’s rating has begun to slide from the high of around 60 per cent seen on March 4, 5, 6 and 7 to come down slightly to around 56.
In contrast, Rahul Gandhi’s rating, which had gone down to less than 3 per cent in the period when Modi’s had surged, has improved marginally to around 7 per cent though it remains much below around 20 per cent support he enjoyed in his best days in January 2019.
In terms of satisfaction with the Prime Minister’s work, there is not much change with over 50 per cent remaining in the very satisfied category. Though his net approval rating in the range of 60s in the first week of March has come down to 56 on March 14.
The gap between the two leaders has come down below 50.
A majority of the respondents (over 40 per cent) continue to believe that Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) can run better coalition.
The findings are based on a sample size varying between 4,000 and over 6,000.
Congress senior leader S Jaipal Reddy praised The Hindu newspaper for boldly exposing dark facts in PM Modi’s Rafale deal. He said that The Hindu story proved that Modi has committed an unpardonable crime. It is now clear there has been no bank guarantee for the Rafale deal and the BJP government has to take full responsibility for the same.
Jaipal Reddy mockingly said that when details about the cost of the Rafale jet fighters deal were asked, PM Modi would not give a straight answer but he would say it was meant for India’s defence. There’s no transparency in the deal and Modi has conveniently ignored the HAL despite its three decades of excellence.
Congress is trying hard to make Rafale the main election issue. Rahul Gandhi is attacking Modi regularly on this issue.
A wave of patriotic fervour is sweeping across the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asserted he will greatly honour the brave air force staff who took out surgical strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan border. He said India is in safe hands now and that he would not do anything that would lower the dignity of the country. India is very much alert to the surrounding problems and all steps would be initiated to make every India victorious and jubilant.
Modi addressed a public meeting in Rajasthan where the Pulwama terror suicide attack and consequential counter air attack by India were mentioned in his speech. He recalled the great services made by all those for the cause of national building and prosperity of the country. The great journey of India towards development and self-reliance will not stop. Nobody would be able to prevent the victories of India in future.
PM Modi said he would like to fold his hands and say ‘namaskar’ to all those who are part of the victory story of the country. He asserted that one’s party would be greater himself or herself but it is the country which is greater than even one’s party or organisation.
AICC President Rahul Gandhi arrived and addressed the Congress Bharosa Bus Yatra at temple town of Tirupati. Rahul talked about the joint decision taken by all parties in the Parliament for giving special status to Andhra Pradesh. Ex PM Manmohan Singh made a promise to confer the special status on AP.
When a prime minister gave a commitment, it means every Indian has given that commitment. Rahul asked the Modi government why it neglected such an important commitment. He asserted that nobody can stop this to AP after the Congress party comes to power in 2019 election.
Rahul hit hard at PM Modi saying that he made many promises to AP from his Tirupati public meeting at the time of 2014 general election. Modi promised special status, jobs and prices to farmers but he did not fulfill any of them. Rahul assured the AP people that this time they would certainly get the status and their dreams would be fulfilled.
The sitting MPs of Bharatiya Janata Party are a worried lot in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and even Maharashtra. PM Modi and Amit Shah are all set to implement the Gujarat model in the coming election. When Modi was chief minister of Gujarat for a long time, he used to refuse tickets to sitting MLAs against whom there is negative feedback. Modi would get special inputs from experts on performance of the MLAs and decide their fate.
The same model is going to be implemented in parliamentary election. Modi’s Gujarat model is considered a successful one in those years when he won election after election without giving chances to opponents. This time, Modi has asked all the party MPs to submit their report cards and performance reports. These would be compared with the internal assessment of the party before taking a decision on tickets.
Going by this latest decision, there are fears among sitting BJP MPs that up to 50 per cent of them may not get tickets. Modi and Shah are expected to give weightage only to those who have good public feedback and clear winning chances. Modi is getting specific reports on how each party MP took steps to make sure benefits of Central programmes reached the poor families.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu sits on a day long protest. With the leaders of opposition expressing solidarity, the demands of Andhra Pradesh state have once again echoed in the national political corridors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his first visit to the state after TDP pulled out of NDA, claimed that his government has done maximum for Andhra Pradesh. However, Modi fails to answer specific questions from the people and political parties of Andhra Pradesh. Instead in a bid to cover up his failure to answer, Modi makes a blistering personal and political attack on Chandrababu Naidu.
Special Status:
The bifurcation of the state was predicated upon the assurance by the then prime minister on the floor of the House to grant special category status to the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh. In fact, the BJP has been demanding special status for ten years. However, the UPA government conceded to this demand and agreed to grant such a status to Andhra Pradesh for a period of only five years.
Despite the fact that senior BJP leaders like M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley were the authors of special status, the Narendra Modi government has refused to grant special status to Andhra on the pretext that the concept of special status seizes to exist with the new devolution formula proposed by the 14th Finance Commission.
External Aided Projects:
However, the NDA government promised special package in lieu of specials status. As per this, it was promised that the Centre would fund to the tune of 90 percent in regard to centrally funded schemes. Thus the additional central grant is arrived at Rs 16,447 crore. The Centre proposed to compensate this through higher central component in Externally Aided Projects (EAPs). But, the execution of such projects would take time. Therefore, the state preferred direct fiscal transfers. As half of the 14th Finance Commission period was already over, the state government desired 50 percent of payment. But, the state government also argued that the Centre has hardly paid Rs 400 crore.
Revenue Deficit:
The Government of India is supposed to compensate for the revenue deficit as the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh lost capital city Hyderabad to Telangana, making the present day Andhra Pradesh public finance precarious. This city accounted for the lion’s share of the combined state income. The revenue deficit was initially estimated at Rs 16,700 crore. The amount was later revised by the Centre to Rs 7,500 crore and the central government only paid Rs 3,977 crore. While the Andhra government claims that the revenue deficit to be paid by the Centre is Rs 12,500 crore, the Centre claims that the due in this regard is merely Rs 138 crore. Modi fails to clear this gap between centre and state. He is silent on this at Guntur.
The state government, meanwhile, has proposed that the Centre may appoint a committee headed by none other than the chairman of the 14th finance commission, YV Reddy to settle the dispute. However, Centre is not forthcoming in this regard.
Railway Zone:
The State Reorganisation Act promised railway zone for Visakhapatnam. But, even this decision is inordinately delayed as Odisha seems to be not in favour of it as it would lose the earning centre like Vishakhapatnam. Though the Centre is not making it explicit, it is clear from even a cursory look that the BJP, due to its political stakes in neighbouring Odisha, is dragging its feet on implementing the provisions of an act passed by Parliament. The argument that the Vizag railway zone will be unviable is fallacious as Vijayawada and Guntakal will be added to Vizag zone once it is separated. When Ram Vilas Paswan could ensure railway zone for Hajipur and it is viable, why can’t Visakhapatnam.
Steel Plant:
The reorganisation act has also promised to set up a steel plant in the backward Rayalaseema district of Kadapa. The district has iron ore mines. The state government has even offered to give these mines as captive mines for the proposed steel plant on free of cost basis as the quality of the ore is low grade. This offer of the state government would make the proposed steel plant viable as raw material itself accounts for 50 percent of cost of production. While the private steel plants of Tatas, Jindals etc. have been allotted captive mines by the government of India, the public sector Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is denied such captive mines forcing the plant to incur losses. Inflicting further insult on the state, now the Centre is not coming forward to set up Kadapa steel plant despite state reorganisation act recommending it.
Polavaram:
As per the bifurcation act, the Polavaram project is being taken up as the national project and the Centre would bear the expenses. But, due to inordinate delay in clearing the bills, the state government is incurring an interest burden of Rs 300 crore. To avoid this, the state urges the Centre to create a revolving fund but to of no avail.
Backward Area Development Funds:
As per the reorganisation act, the centre has agreed to provide funds for the development of necessary infrastructure in seven backward districts of Rayalaseema and North Coastal Andhra. Funds were allocated at the rate of Rs 150 crore per district. What kind of infrastructure can be created with this meagre funding, only centre should know. Meanwhile, centre at the instance of PMO withdrew Rs.350 crores after they were credited in the state account.
Greenfield Capital:
The reorganisation act also mandates Centre to fund the construction of a green field capital at Amravati for the state of Andhra Pradesh. However, no specific resources were mentioned in the act. Taking advantage of this, the NDA government has granted only Rs 1,500 crore so far. The fact that the underground drainage works taken up in Vijayawada and Guntur were also included in this head on the pretext that these two cities also fall in the capital region has further infuriated the state.
Dugarajapatnam Port:
The centre has to set up Dugarajapatnam Port in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. But, the construction encountered certain objections as sensitive ecosystem of Pulicat Lake and the satellite launching station ISRO of Sriharikota, are very near to Dugarajapatnam. But, the centre neither addresses these hurdles nor propose an alternate place.
Petroleum Refinery:
Andhra Pradesh should also get a petroleum refinery and cracking unit as per the bifurcation package. But, the HPCL-GAIL consortium is reportedly seeking a viability gap funding of Rs 1,200 crore per year for a period of 15 years from the state government. The state feels this is unfair as it is the assurance of state bifurcation and any such viability gap funding should come from the centre itself.
Educational Institutions:
To implement the state reorganisation act centre has already setup several educational institutions in the state. But, the flow of funds is tardy and the these institutions are yet to take off in any significant manner. While Rs. 12,000 crores are to be given , the centre has so far released not even Rs.1000 crores.
(Prof.K. Nageshwar is India’s noted political analyst. He is a former member of the Telangana Legislative Council and professor in the Department of Communication & Journalism, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India)
AP CM N Chandrababu Naidu took strong objection to PM Modi’s comments on the backstabbing of NTR. Naidu said it was Modi who had greatly insulted and cheated his own Guru LK Advani. It was Advaniji who stopped former PM Vajpayee from removing Modi from the post of Gujarat chief ministership after Godhra killings. If Advani did not stop that, Modi’s political career would have ended at that time itself. CBN said that Modi had no gratitude towards his own guru and he humiliated by not even acknowledging Advani’s presence in the party now.
Naidu’s comments came as a counter to Modi’s mocking statement that CBN had gained seniority after backstabbing his own father-in-law and TDP founder NTR. Modi also said that he could not compete with Naidu’s seniority as the TDP chief had a lot of experience in losing one election after another. Naidu hit back saying that the TDP has got a glowing track record of winning elections including the last 2014 assembly election in AP.
Naidu told Modi that the TDP is not targetting the Congress just because it is not in power at the Centre and it has turned against the BJP as it is holding power in Delhi but not doing enough to save AP from crisis.
PM Modi chanted NTR name and launched a bitter attack on AP CM Chandrababu Naidu. Modi addressed a large gathering of people at Guntur today. He mockingly referred to Naidu’s claims of seniority. Modi said yes it was true Naidu is a senior to him in issues like backstabbing one’s own father-in-law. Naidu is also known for his seniority in changing his loyalties and alliances with different parties before and after elections.
Modi said while he was protecting the country like a watchman, leaders like Naidu were only interested in their personal interests. What Naidu is doing in AP is not making it a sunrise state in industrial development but AP is busy making a Son-Rise state for the sake of developing his son Lokesh. Modi said it is not Amaravati capital city construction that Naidu is doing but he is busy with the reconstruction of his own near-collapsed Telugu Desam Party.
PM Modi called upon the people of AP to demand explanation from Naidu why he is spending huge amounts of AP people’s money for his Delhi protest. Referring to ‘Modi Go Back’ protests, PM thanked his rival parties saying that he will indeed go back to Delhi and sit there as Prime Minister for another term of five years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched development projects here amid protests staged across Andhra Pradesh against his visit to the state.
At an event, he unveiled plaques to formally unveil the projects which have come up or would be built in different parts of the state.
He dedicated the 1.33 million metric tonnes of Visakhapatnam Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) facility of the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL) built at a cost of Rs 1,178 crore.
The Prime Minister also inaugurated the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited’s Vashishta and S1 development project at Amalapuram on the Krishna-Godavari Offshore Basin.
Modi also laid the foundation stone for setting up of a new terminal of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) at Krishnapatnam. It will be built at a cost of Rs 700 crore.
He will also address a mass rally here.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders received Modi at the Gannavaram Airport at Vijayawada earlier in the day. He later flew in a helicopter to Guntur.
Meanwhile, wearing black dresses and carrying black flags, demonstrators stages protests and sit-ins across the state reiterating their demands for a Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh.
Leaders of the Left parties held protests in Guntur. They threatened to disrupt Modi’s rally over his “betrayal” to the state.
This is Modi’s first visit to Andhra Pradesh after the ruling Telugu Desam Party pulled out of BJP-led NDA last year.
PM Modi continued his unsparing attack on the Congress party in the Parliament. He said his main goal in life is to achieve a Congress-free India. ‘Congress mukt Bharat’ is important for the greater good of the people. Modi recalled the words of Mahatma Gandhi who stood for the closure of the Congress party after India achieved independence but the party was continued to fulfill the vested interests of some families.
Modi vowed to fufill his dream of achieving Mahatma’s goal which is to close the Congress party. PM also cited statements of BR Ambedkar who said it would be equal to committing suicide to join the Congress party. Modi hit back saying many parties are coming together to target him just because they are not able to digest how a poor man like Modi has become PM. Is this my crime? he asked.
Modi countered Rahul’s allegation and said in this instance, it is the robber who is accusing the watchman. PM strongly objected to Rahul’s statement that the watchman has become the robber. Modi accused the Congress of demolishing all the democratic institutions in the country for five decades.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday condemned the happenings in Kolkata, terming it a glaring example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah destroying the institutions.
Naidu, also the President of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), tweeted that attacking political opponents in different States, few days before the Parliament elections, will have disastrous consequences in the country.
“This is shocking and we strongly condemn this. We stand by Chief Minister of West Bengal to preserve and protect the Constitution and spirit of federalism in the country,” tweeted Naidu
“After opposition parties started uniting and started to fight together to save democracy, the Modi led BJP is losing all hope. The misuse of institutions by the union government to victimize political opponents in States is reaching dangerous proportions,” said Naidu.
He was reacting to the happenings in Kolkata, where a group of CBI officers were spotted near the residence of police commissioner Rajeev Kumar. This led to a scuffle between CBI and Kolkata policemen.
The CBI was reportedly looking for Kumar in connection with its probe into ponzi scheme scam case.
