Vizianagaram, Sep 28: Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council and former minister Botcha Satyanarayana said the Village and Ward Secretariat system was introduced by the YSRCP government to realise Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Gram Swaraj and provide employment transparently to highly educated youth. Recalling that he personally supervised the recruitment process as Municipal Administration Minister, he said the present government had neither the time nor the intent to sit with employees and resolve their problems.
Botcha condemned the police action against Secretariat employees who were peacefully protesting over their demands. He said around 3,000 employees responding to the statewide “Chalo Vijayawada” call were detained and that 140 employee union leaders were taken into custody in Vijayawada and subjected to harassment. He strongly condemned the police action against women employees and said suppressing the democratic right to protest reflected authoritarian governance. He demanded immediate resolution of the employees’ legitimate demands and said the government had become completely indifferent to public distress.
Turning to agriculture, Botcha said crops along the eastern coastal belt were badly damaged after the cyclone crossed near Kalingapatnam, with banana, papaya, maize and paddy suffering severe losses. He said farmers were still awaiting compensation relating to Titli cyclone losses and recalled that the YSRCP government paid farmers’ crop-insurance premium and provided compensation and input subsidy within two months of disasters.
He questioned whether the coalition government, despite promising a new system, had compensated even a single affected farmer in the past two-and-a-half years. Banana and papaya farmers had invested around Rs. 1 lakh per acre and maize farmers around Rs. 50,000 per acre, demanding compensation based on actual losses rather than token relief.
He further said governance had been reduced to police-centric administration, with police stations turning into centres for settlements instead of public grievance redressal. He said opposition supporters were being directly warned by police not to contest Parents Committee elections and criticised the police leadership for failing to change course despite repeated court interventions.
On BC reservations, he said that if the coalition was committed to implementing 34% reservations for BCs in local bodies, it should use its position in the NDA government to bring the necessary legal amendment immediately.
*YSRCP slams TDP coalition for leaving 11 lakh houses unfinished*
