Sajjala dares Chandrababu to spell out his stand on decentralisation first

AMARAVATI: In a scathing attack on TDP president Chandrababu Naidu, YSRCP General Secretary and Advisor to Government (Public Affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy on Saturday dared the former to make his stand clear on why he is opposing decentralisation and advocating Amaravati as the single capital for the State.

Addressing the media at the party central office here, he strongly objected to the abusive rhetoric used by Chandrababu Naidu during his Kurnool district tour without any provocation and demanded him to spell out his stand on Kurnool as Judicial Capital.

"Decentralisation is our policy and we could articulate it showing valid reasons," he said, adding that Chandrababu had no basis to justify why administration and development should be concentrated in one region. Abusing people, officials and police shows his frustration levels, he said.

Ramakrishna Reddy accused the TDP president of trying to divert the attention of people from the topic of decentralization and resorting to spreading lies out of frustration besides provoking other leaders to follow in his footsteps and even scripting the abusive remarks for his spokespersons and Pawan Kalyan as well.

The abusive rhetoric and body language displayed by Chandrababu Naidu does not befit his stature as a politician, said Sajjala, adding that earlier, Pawan Kalyan also showed slippers openly.

"Explain the reasons why you are opposing the idea of establishing a judicial capital at Kurnool and the decentralisation plans," he challenged the TDP chief, reaffirming that the policy of decentralization had a scientific basis.

Recalling the Sri Krishna Committee Report which warned of the dangerous consequences of centralisation and the Sribagh Pact that aimed at decentralization for the balanced development of all the regions, Sajjala said that YSRCP Government had been advocating the policy of decentralisation as it strongly believed in the principles of natural justice and development of all regions equally.

Sajjala said that the residual state of Andhra Pradesh suffered a lot due to bifurcation and decentralisation was the only solution to prevent the repetition of similar movements in the future. "Centralisation of development and accumulation of wealth at a single place leads to separatist agitations and hence, the policy of decentralisation is fully justified," he asserted.

"Why are you unable to clarify the reasons that prompted you to advocate centralisation? Is it because farmers just gave their land to set up the capital at the most inconvenient place and you could not amass lakhs of crores of rupees from your ulterior plans," he asked, adding that the TDP chief just cheated the farmers for his selfish ends.

Observing that lack of accountability on the part of the TDP was the reason for its defeat in the last Assembly elections, Sajjala said the same fate would await the party in the next elections too.

Defending the raids of the registration department on chit fund companies, he said that the Government had a right to stop irregularities in finance companies. Asserting that Naidu had no achievements to boast of during his tenure as Chief Minister of residual Andhra Pradesh, he ridiculed the claims of Naidu that he brought investments worth Rs.16 lakh cores.

While Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy is going ahead with his mature policies to bring about transformation in the lives of all segments of people including farmers, Naidu is only just day-dreaming about Amaravati as the single capital, Ramakrishna Reddy commented.