Vijayawada meet only to scare farmers

Hyderabad, Jan 7: Taking strong objection to Chandrababu Naidu holding pre-budget meeting at Vijayawada with a 250-strong contingent, including police officers while leaving behind the top bureaucrats in the city, YSR Congress has said that the extravaganza is uncalled for and the inclusion of police force is only to scare the farmers who are not willing to part with their land in the capital region.

'Chandrababu Naidu has taken along with him a 250-strong team with him for the pre-budget meeting leaving out the Principal Secretaries of Finance, Revenue and other Departments and including a posse of police officers which shows that TDP government is sending a warning signal to the farmers who are up in arms against the land pooling policy, Party MLA G. Srikanth Reddy told reporters here on Wednesday.

The posse of police force parading the streets at the venue is to create a terror among the farmers of capital region and the exercise has lost its purpose with the concerned officials sitting in Secretariat while the contingent of police officials and leaders handpicked by Chief Minister are set to discuss the budget.

'The straight question is what has such a big contingent of police to do with the pre-budget meeting and is there a need for its presence in the name of security,' he said.

This apart, the extravaganza involved in the meeting being held at Vijayawada by sanctioning Rs 40 lakhs through a GO shows the State's spending priorities as it has not released even a single rupee for drinking water so far.

We demand that the TDP government should be accountable for every rupee it spends as Chandrababu Naidu has been advocating that there is an Rs 16,000 crore deficit budget and the State is in deep financial crisis. There is a yawning gap between the words and deeds of Chandrababu Naidu.

While Chief Ministers of other states travel economy class, Naidu uses chartered flights and organizes conducted tours to Japan and Singapore for his favoured few. On the other hand he sets up a collection box (hundi) at the Secretariat to collect funds for capital formation.

Chandrababu Naidu has spent huge amounts to renovate his office and his chamber and now has sanctioned Rs 10 lakhs of public money for renovating his farm house. The indication is clear that he places his personal affairs on priority to people's issues.

We demand that the Government should be accountable to every rupee its spends and as a responsible opposition party we will question the expenses, more so the extravaganza, he said.

We object the presence of police presence in the pre-budget meeting as this is sending signals to the reluctant farmers to surrender in the land pooling issue. We will be with the farmers and fight it out and such tactics will not work.

The State should first explain the reasons for holding the meeting at Vijayawada, leaving behind the concerned officials, including police officials in the entourage and the lavish spending, he said.