‘Jagan failed to make Kadapa steel plant a reality’
APCC president Y.S. Sharmila on Saturday slammed the YSRCP government for its failure to achieve the promised Kadapa steel factory.
Addressing an election meeting at Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district, Ms. Sharmila said she had fond memories of this place, as not only she and her brother Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, but also her father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy were born here.
She said successive governments had confined the project to performing ‘bhumi puja’. After the ‘bhumi puja’ performed by YSR, his successor and TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu repeated the act when his party came to power. Later, under the YSRCP rule, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy performed the ritual twice, but not a single brick was laid till date, she said.
Ms. Sharmila criticised Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy for not raising the steel plant issue even once in Parliament. She said people of the State had pinned lot of hopes on Mr. Jagan, who, as an Opposition leader, made many promises, but did not fulfil any of them after coming to power. “He had criticised the TDP government for not being able to achieve Special Category Status (SCS). But after coming to power and with a substantial majority in Parliament, he did nothing to ensure justice to the people of Andhra Pradesh,” she said.
The YSRCP government had miserably failed on all fronts, she alleged. Ms. Sharmila’s cousin Narreddy Suneetha said they were fighting to prevent resurgence of faction feuds in Kadapa. “Our only demand is that people guilty of crime should be punished adequately,” she said.
Meanwhile, Ms. Sharmila, while referring to the comments reportedly made by Y.S. Vimala Reddy, sister of slain former MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, said she was only referring to the records made available through a proper CBI investigation and not accusing anyone based on rumours.
Ms. Vimala had reportedly accused Ms. Sharmila and Ms. Suneetha of causing “irrefutable damage to the family honour” by projecting Mr. Avinash Reddy as an accused in the murder case. “The sisters are accusing their own cousin based on the confession made by one of the accused in the murder case, which is not fair,” Ms. Vimala reportedly said.
Alleging that Ms. Vimala Reddy’s family got financially strengthened with the contract works given by the YSRCP government and hence was speaking in his favour, Ms. Sharmila told the media in Kadapa district that “due to old age, my aunt seems to have forgotten the brutal murder of her brother at the hands of family members. I urge all to ignore her comments.”
‘Attack unfortunate’
Ms. Sharmila said that the pelting of stone on Mr. Jagan in his election meeting “is very unfortunate” . She posted on X: “We are assuming that it happened by accident. But if somebody has done this deliberately, it should be condemned in strong terms by one and all. There is no place for violence in a democracy,” she said, adding that she would pray to the Almighty for early recovery of Mr. Jagan.