PNS|Vijayawada
State Social Welfare Minister Merugu Nagarjuna has announced that if Nara Lokesh comes along with his father Chandrababu Naidu, his party is ready for a public debate on the welfare of SCs in the State. Lokesh and Naidu were asked to tell when and where to come for public debate. The Minister strongly condemned the allegations of Lokesh that there was no development of Dalits, and said that the then Telugu Desam government, led by Chandrababu Naidu, never worked for the Dalit welfare and development during five years tenure.
Lokesh threw a challenge to YSRC government and Minister Nagarjuna alleging no development and increased attacks on Dalits. Responding to the challenge, Minister Nagarjuna said that Lokesh did not win even the sarpanch election so he will not join the debate. He challenged that he will join the public debate if Lokesh comes with Naidu and will prove the cheating of the Dalits by the TDP government in its five-year rule.
He said, “We are ready to tell you (Lokesh) where and how Chandrababu Naidu did injustice to the Dalits as he will forever remain in history as an anti-Dalit.”
Minister Nagarjuna said that the YSRCP is ready to prove the role of the then minister K Atchannaidu in the attack on Kalyani in Srikakulam district, the incident of insulting a Dalit woman in Visakhapatnam- Jerripotula Palem, confinement of Dalits in Amalapuram, and the incident in which 400 families were exposed for putting up a statue of Ambedkar in Garagaparru.
He further said, “We are ready to discuss the incident in Agiripalli where a boy was taken to the police station and beaten up, the 98 acres of land seized in Devarapalli, the incident in Pathirikuppam, the way Chandrababu Naidu acted in the case of the attack on Vasantha Rao in Kurnool, as well as all the social inequalities in Kuppam. Nagarjuna claimed that Lokesh is throwing futile challenges through provocative words to attract public attraction as the people are not coming to his ‘padayatra’.
He commented that Lokesh should know that his father Chandrababu Naidu had destroyed SC and ST sub-plans by diverting their funds. He alleged that Naidu had spent the 2018-19 sub-plan funds on Polam Badi, sanitary napkins for DWCRA women, social security pensions, ‘NTR Sujala Sravanti’, ‘Chandranna Pelli Kanuka’, ‘NTR Udyoga Nidhi’, ‘Ma Inti Mahalakshmi’, and other schemes.
He said that Naidu restrained Dalits and other sections of society by creating hurdles to English medium education.
