Ministers flay Babu, Yanamala

Even while urging former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu to adopt a ‘respectable method of criticism’, three Cabinet Ministers, in varying degrees, lambasted Mr Naidu and his party leader and former Yanamala Ramakrishnudu for their vitriolic against Chief Minister K Rosaiah.

Speaking to media persons separately, Revenue Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao, Minister for Secondary Education Doka Manikyavara Prasada Rao and Forest Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, made light of the criticism made by the TDP leaders, even as they attempted to defend the Chief Minister.

The three Ministers appealed to the TDP leaders to begin a new culture, a respectable method even for criticism and not to resort to unpalatable comments and lower their status for their petty and temporary benefit and for gaining political mileage.

Mr Prasada Rao, however, pointed out the ‘shortcomings’ of Mr Naidu by saying that Chief Minister Rosaiah had built his career systematically and came up the political ladder the hard way unlike the TDP chief.

The Minister condemned the TDP chief's allegation that ' we are diluting the schemes' and there was no proper input subsidy made available to the needy. In this regard, Mr Prasada Rao reeled out the data on Calamity Contingency Fund offered to the victims right from 2004 to 2010 (Rs 2079 crore) and compared how low was the funding to the victims during the TDP rule, when the state witnessed cyclones, natural disasters, earth quakes etc.

He added that the Congress government had secured funds under Calamity Relief Fund from the Centre.

The states contribute 25 percent and the centre 75 percent to the CRF, he said stating that "we could bring something from the CRF while Naidu got nothing."

The Revenue Minister pointed out that during the YSR and Rosaiah rule, the government had secured enough funds from the centre to meet the requirements of the poor whenever there were disasters or natural calamities in the state. He added that the TDP leaders were shedding their status while speaking and criticising Mr Rosaiah with no essence in their comments though the Chief Minister made best of his attempts to brighten the administration.

Mr Prasada Rao also highlighted how the administration was geared up and how temporary estimations were already made for the benefit of the flood-hit people.

When the government was thus engaged, the TDP chief toured with empty hands criticising and the response was naturally poor, he said, and added that it was unfortunate that they were misquoting figures and thereby losing credibility.

In a separate press meeting, Mr Ramachandra Reddy expressed his anger against former speaker and TDP leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu for his remarks against Mr Rosaiah.

The Minister said that Mr Ramakrishnudu toed the line of Lakshmi Parvathi, when NTR was in power. Later, when Mr Naidu became Chief Minister, he switched sides, which spoke of his character, Mr Ramachandra Reddy said.

The Minister said that Mr Rosaiah had the support of the high command and would continue as the Chief Minister.

The TDP had no future and may not return to power as it was losing public base, he said.

Meanwhile, Minister Vara Prasada Rao ridiculed the TDP leader's public comments against the Chief Minister and said that the opposition was not strong and that it was not up to the mark to come on par with the Congress party. He added that the opposition's sole aim was to criticise the government, whether if it was on the right track or not in its criticism.

The criticism was just for criticism sake, and their reckless views expressed publicly would actually prove counterproductive later, Mr Vara Prasada Rao said.