What is holding the government from conducting the local body elections, senior TDP leader Ayyanna Patrudu has questioned.
Releasing a video from his home town Narsipatnam on Monday, Mr. Patrudu alleged that the YSRCP was afraid of conducting the elections fearing rout.
When elections were conducted in Telangana and in the conflict-ridden Jammu and Kashmir, the YSRCP government was opposing the exercise citing the COVID-19 pandemic. “This clearly indicates that it is afraid of an imminent defeat,” the TDP leader said.
Referring to the proposal to increase property tax based on the value of the property, he said it would seriously impact the people, especially the poor and the middle class, as the tax rate would go up exorbitantly.
The government should drop the proposal immediately, he said.
TIDCO houses
On TIDCO housing, Mr. Patrudu said the houses were actually constructed with the Central government funds, and that the State government had a very small role in it.
“The houses that have been completed have not been given to the beneficiaries. In Narsipatnam rural, over 2,000 houses are ready,” he said.
He criticised Municipal Administration Minister Botcha Satyanarayana for stating that the YSRCP government was clearing the housing dues kept pending by the TDP government.
“The Minister should know that when the TDP formed the government in 2014 post bifurcation, the State had inherited the dues kept pending by the Congress-led governments, and also cleared them,” he said.
In the last 18 months, the YSRCP government had obtained loans to the tune of ₹2.4 lakh crores and pushed the State into a debt trap.
