The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : CPI warns Congress against toeing TDP line.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

CPI warns Congress against toeing TDP line.

By our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI. Aug. 24. Yesterday's statement of the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, declaring that the Government would pull off the plug 3.5 lakh unauthorised power connections in the State, came as a bolt from the blue for farmers of Chittoor district which accounted for the bulk of such connections, depended as it were only on lift irrigation in the absence of any irrigation project.The statement provoked even the Congress' poll ally, the Communist Party of India (CPI), which warned the Congress against toeing the line of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and harassing farmers which eventually saw its defeat in the recent polls.

YSR flayed

The CPI district secretary, Harinadha Reddy, was highly critical of the Chief Minister threatening to use even police force to remove unauthorised connections and sought to remind the Congress that it was this oppressive and repressive measure that made the entire farming community rise in revolt against the TDP and vote in favour of the Congress.

The CPI leader held only the Government responsible for unauthorised connections because farmers, having waited long enough for the Transco to give them connections, were left with no option but to draw power illegally to save their crops and lives. He advised the Congress Government to take urgent steps to regularise all the connections without indulging in any misadventure as it would only be counter-productive.

Farmers anguished

Farmers in the district and leaders of various farmers' associations expressed `shock' over the Congress Government's volte face on the free power issue and threatened to take to streets if the Government tried to backtrack on its poll promise after having come to power.

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Andhra Pradesh