TDP policies hurting common man the most: CPI(M) leader

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 14. The CPI(M) State Committee secretary, Mr. B. V. Raghavulu, has said the last one-year ``hellish'' rule of Telugu Desam was marked by all round failures, World Bank- dictated policies and the only ``reward'' people got was a burden of Rs. 1,756 crores full of hikes and taxes.

At a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. Raghavulu said the one-year rule left people wondering if it was the same Government elected by them which promised to work for their welfare or the one which worked for the World Bank interests.

This was clear from the way the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, expressed the Government's inability to roll back the hike in power tariff, after raising it at the behest of the World Bank, he said. Not just in the power sector, the World Bank's interference and the ``advice from foreign consultants'' had become all-pervasive in Government departments, ``which no one having a modicum of self-respect would accept.''

Mr. Raghavulu said if the State Government's burden stood at Rs. 1,756 crores, the one from the Centre in the form of taxes added to Rs. 1,880 crores taking the total to Rs. 3,636 crores, making the common man's life miserable.

He said there had been 29 starvation deaths and 30 suicides by farmers in the State but the Government seemed unconcerned. Far from taking responsibility, it went on to compare the suicides with those in Kerala, as if to justify them. Who should take responsibility for the supply of virus-infected seed to the farmers that lead to the large-scale destruction of groundnut crop triggering suicides by farmers, he asked.

The CPI(M) leader said while the Assembly had been reduced to the role of ``a silent spectator,'' Panchayat Raj bodies were being systematically destroyed by postponing elections with some excuse or the other.

All these issues would be highlighted along with a charter of demands during a fortnight-long ``yatras'' to be organised throughout the State from November 1 and culminate in a meeting in Hyderabad on November 15. Seven ``yatras'' would be launched from Tirupati, Srikakulam, Sullurupeta, Adilabad, Bellampalli, Chittoor and Kakinada. There would be a number of ``upa yatras'' within districts, mandals and 20,000 villages.

The 15-point charter of demands include withdrawal of loan agreements with the World Bank, rollback of hike in power tariff and bus fare, exerting pressure on the Centre to withdraw hike in prices of petroleum products, grant subsidy on LPG and kerosene to white ration card-holders, halt to privatisation of public sector units, filling of all vacant posts, special funds for development of backward areas and convince the Centre for taking up the Godavari as a national project.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : A disastrous start to Naidu's second term, says
           Cong.
Next     : Social worker felicitated by Governor