Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Naidu condemns Sonia's demand

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD APRIL 6. The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, has condemned Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi's demand for scrapping the people-interactive Janmabhoomi programme, saying ''she must have been wrongly briefed.''

He was surprised that Ms. Gandhi should want `one of our best programmes' to be abolished. Her fears that the programme ran contrary to the Panchayati Raj spirit were unfounded. On the other hand the objective was to strengthen and promote the local bodies and not to function as parallel ones.

The Telugu Desam Politburo, which met here on Saturday, discussed a number of key issues, including the unabated violence in Gujarat and Ms. Gandhi's hostile criticism of the Janmabhoomi at the all-India conference of heads of panchayats.

Talking to reporters later, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said the programme not only helped redress 51.75 individual and 2.36 lakh community problems but promote over 4 lakh DWCRA, 66,000 CMEY youth groups, large number of water users, watershed, school and other committees. It brought officials closer to people in villages and made them accountable. The 16 rounds helped promote awareness and motivate people on key social issues like untouchability, communal harmony, AIDS, animal health, literacy, empowerment of women etc, besides fostering national spirit.

Its biggest gain was that people became partners in progress.

He said the President, K. R. Narayanan, had hailed the initiative; so did many other leaders. Congress criticised it, but several leaders participated in the programmes. Some Congress Governments sought to emulate with their own brand names and he hoped that the Congress would own it. To his surprise, Ms. Gandhi derided it.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said the Congress opposed it before the 1999 elections and paid dearly for it. Changing tack, it said the programme was allright, but it differed only on mode of implementation. ''If they cannot appreciate it let them at least not run it down and distort,'' he said.

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