Jagan urges Modi to grant special category status for AP

   YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accord Special Category Status (SCS), considering it as the sacrosanct right of the people of Andhra Pradesh.

During the Praja Sankalpa Yatra at Inkollu in Parchur Assembly segment, Mr. Reddy expressed happiness over the activists of the Aam Admi Party and the Left parties joining the protest staged by the YSRCP in New Delhi decrying the non-implementation of the promises made to the State at the time of bifurcation.

The YSRCP would continue to agitate along with like-minded parties till SCS was achieved, he said.

In a tweet, Mr. Reddy said: “I thank all our MPs, MLAs, important leaders & cadre who participated in taking our struggle for SCS to Delhi. I also thank leaders & cadre of the CPI, the CP(M) and AAP who joined our dharna. I sincerely hope @narendramodi ji takes our concerns to consideration and grants us SCS, our right.”

Referring to the party’s decision to stay away from the ongoing Assembly session, Mr. Reddy dared Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to make the YSRCP MLAs who had crossed over to the ruling party to put in their papers and get them re-elected in the bylections on the TDP ticket.

Alleging that corruption was rampant during the TDP rule, he said it was unfortunate that no action had been taken in the cash-for-vote scam.

Farmers were in deep distress as they were unable to get the minimum support price announced by the government for most of the crops. After promising a blanket loan waiver, the government had put a majority of the farmers out of the purview of the scheme. Whatever benefit a small section of them got was not enough to service their debts, he said.

He shared his vision of making farming profitable right from the stage of sow to marketing. A ?4,000-crore calamity relief fund would be constituted and a minimum guaranteed price for all crops would be introduced if the YSRCP was voted to power, he said.

Mr. Reddy said the YSRCP would ensure nine-hour power supply during day time to energise pumpsets.

He alleged that people were unhappy due to the four-year misrule of the TDP government, marked by a host of unkept promises.

It was unfortunate that Mr. Naidu, who had promised to close down belt shops if voted to power, had gone to the extent of ensuring direct to home marketing of liquor.

Except for supply of rice, that too after cutting down the quota for each family, no other essential commodity was being supplied, he said. The promised jobs for all the unemployed youth and payment of ?2,000 per month to them till then was yet to be fulfilled.