The Hindu : J&K poll results prove voters' supremacy: Naidu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 12, 2002

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National

J&K poll results prove voters' supremacy: Naidu

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI Oct. 11. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and a key player in the NDA Government, N. Chandrababu Naidu, today said that the Jammu and Kashmir election results had once again proved that in a democracy voters were the supreme masters and democracy still the best and most powerful weapon in their armoury.

Talking to mediapersons near Piler in his native Chittoor district where he flew in on a drought-study mission, Mr. Naidu said that amid all odds and heavy provocations from Pakistan to disrupt the poll process and terrorise the voters, polling in the State could be held successfully. He wondered whether the voters in Pakistan could exercise their franchise in such a free and fair manner as the Jammu and Kashmir voters did.

On the rout of the National Conference, Mr. Naidu said it was perhaps a vote against the ``family rule'' of the Abdullas and pointed out that the family had been ruling the State for three generations now.

Asked how he, as a partner in the ruling NDA dispensation, felt about the NC's defeat, Mr. Naidu said the Telugu Desam Party was not a partner in the NDA but was only supporting it from the outside.

Mr. Naidu claimed that there was positive response to his move at the Central-level for the revival of the Ganga-Kaveri link-canal system to tackle the irrigation problem on a permanent basis. Reiterating his demand for networking the 30 Himalayan and peninsular rivers under the Ganga-Kaveri-Brahmaputra-Godavari linkage scheme, Mr. Naidu said that only this would provide a lasting solution to floods and drought.

Though the scheme could cost the exchequer about Rs. 5.5 lakh crores, it would be able to provide irrigation facility to about an additional 10 crore acres and help generate 35,000 mw of more power.

Asked if the execution of such a scheme would not be a time-consuming one, Mr. Naidu said that it could be completed possibly in a little over 10 years time if pursued seriously with the political will.

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