Date:01/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/01/stories/2008110154780600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

TDP keen on playing anti-corruption card

Staff Reporter

GUNTUR: The Telugu Desam Party is keen on playing the anti-corruption card in a bid to strike a chord with the youth at the massive Yuva Garjana meet to be held here on November 5.

The party will train its guns primarily on Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and the prestigious Jala Yagnam project on one hand and woo the unemployed youth with a plethora of promises on the other.

By castigating the corrupt policies of the government, the party was also hoping to wrest the initiative from the Praja Rajyam Party, which is also keen on making corruption as one of the key electoral issues.

Evidence

“We will expose the rampant corruption prevailing in the government and we have evidence to back our claims. Nowhere else in the country has the Comptroller and Auditor General indicted the State Government as often as 15 times. The present Chief Minister has the worst track record in corruption ever since Independence,” party Polit Bureau member Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao told reporters here on Friday.

He said that the government revised the total estimates for the Jala Yagnam from Rs.47,000 crores to Rs.1.57 lakh crores and made it a “Dhana Yagnam.” The government had been investing massive sums and diverting funds from the other departments to fund the projects.

Stating that the Chief Minister had let go a golden opportunity to usher in winds of change as the state passed a budget of Rs.1 lakh crores, he sought a white paper on the status of completion of various projects.

Package for youth

Further, the government neglected the welfare of youth and forced them to be jobless. “We have filled 1.57 lakh teacher and Vidya Volunteer posts and got leading ITES companies to train youngsters in rural areas. The government has done away with avenues for self-employment,” he said.

The TDP leader assured people that the party would come with a attractive package for youth fulfilling their aspirations and dreams and added that the policy would be announced by party president N. Chandrababu Naidu at the end of the meeting.