YSR Congress Party general secretary and local body elections in-charge Dadi Veerabhadra Rao on Tuesday attributed motives to State Election Commissioner N. Ramesh Kumar for denial of permission by the State Election Commission for distribution of house sites to 26 lakh poor families on Ugadi.
Speaking to the media, he said the State government had taken the decision long ago and made all the preparations to distribute them before the announcement of election schedule. He said in the past also, the election authorities had allowed then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to distribute ‘Pasupu Kumkuma’ to women beneficiaries last year.
Stating that there were several precedents on distribution of welfare programmes during the election process, he wondered why Mr. Ramesh Kumar had denied the poor families from getting house sites on Ugadi. Even the letter written by him to Chief Secretary Neelam Sawhney contained the points raised by Mr. Chandrababu Naidu. SEC was an independent authority an he should not function at the behest of the TDP president who appointed him when he was heading the government in 2016.
Mr. Rao said the local body polls in other States had been put off as election process was yet to begin there. “A.P. is a separate case wherein here the entire process would have been completed by month-end,” he pointed out.
He appealed to the SEC to withdraw the order issued by him to put off elections by six weeks and conduct them immediately without further delay.
