Jagan attacks Naidu for bid to stall trifurcation of capital

Visakhapatnam: Sharpening his attack on Telugu Desam Party president and his bete noire N Chandrababu Naidu for trying to stall trifurcation of Andhra Pradesh capital, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Thursday that come what may, he would go ahead with welfare schemes as promised in YSRCP's election manifesto.

Launching distribution of nearly 1.25 lakh houses-site pattas to women beneficiaries valued at Rs 10,000 crore at a programme organised at Pydivada Agrahram village in Sabbavaram mandal in Anakapalle district near here, he described TDP without naming it as an 'evil force' and described how the Opposition leaders created problems for ensuring equitable development of all the regions by forming three capitals. Earlier, he unveiled the statue of YSR and inspected the Jagananna Housing Colony and some of the model houses. Along with 1.25 pattas, 1.7 lakh sites were distributed in rural areas with permission for house construction.

"They opposed when we wanted executive capital in Visakhapatnam and judicial capital in Kurnool. They approached the court when we wanted to distribute house-sites to the poor in Amaravati. They even stopped for 489 days our plan to acquire land under the Land Pooling Scheme and give plots to the poor women at Pydivada Agrahram)," he said. Addressing a mammoth gathering which thronged the venue of patta distribution, the Chief Minister said Naidu during his tenure as the Chief Minister post-bifurcation did nothing for providing houses to the poor and developing the State "Instead, he devoted his time to construct a palatial building for himself in Hyderabad whereas I as Leader of Opposition built a house for myself at Tadepalli to serve the people better," he pointed out.

Referring to representation made by Pendurthi MLA A. Adeep Raj, said the State Government had set up a committee to resolve the 'Panchagramalu' land row in Simhachalam area. "There is a case in the court. We hope the issue will be sorted out soon. He said the government had earmarked Rs 58 crore to rehabilitate the pollution victims of Tadi village in Parawada mandal.

Reiterating the government's commitment to provide high quality houses to all the eligible persons, he said there was no last date for submitting application form and anytime applications could be submitted at the nearest grama/ward sachivalayam. He said the government was giving three options viz. take money and construct on your own including some amount towards labour cost, avail material and labour cost or allow the government to construct houses on its own.

Stating that they were not compromising on quality and in developing basic amenities in the Jagananna Housing Colonies, he declared that in urban areas they were giving at least one cent and in rural areas each beneficiary was being given 1.5 cents. He said they were committed to construct 30.70 lakh houses in 17,000 Jagananna Housing Colonies. Construction work has been taken up in the first phase for 15.60 lakh houses.

House sanction letters for 3.03 lakh were issued on Thursday. In addition to Jagananna houses, the government is also taking up finishing work on 2.62 lakh TIDCO houses on a war-footing. He said each beneficiary would get a house worth Rs.10 lakh including all amenities to each beneficiary thereby raising GDP of the State providing man-days and employment in the construction sector. The Chief Minister said the State Government was spending Rs 35,000 crore on land procurement and Rs 32,000 crore towards providing infrastructure facilities. During the TDP regime, work on five lakh houses could not be completed , whereas they had embarked on building 31 lakh houses.

Ministers Jogi Ramesh, Gudivada Amarnath, Botcha Satyanarayana, A. Suresh, Dharmana Prasada Rao, MPs MVV Satyanarayana, BV Satyavathi, TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy, Vizag Mayor Golagani Hari Venkata Kumari and others were present.