Press Releases Archive

Torrential rains this year have once again exposed how centralized administration plays havoc with common people’s lives, commented the Lok Satta Party here today.

The administration has come to a virtual standstill with the Chief Minister ailing, the Cabinet divided on regional lines, a fight raging for the Chief Minister’s seat and some Ministers preoccupied with covering up corruption charges against them.

Talking to the media, party leaders Katari Srinivasa Rao and Eda Chennayya said that as a result of the the paralysis in administration people had to endure hardships ranging from fertilized scarcity to flooded homes and fields, water and air-borne diseases and cratered roads. Private hospitals and laboratories in Coastal Andhra are fleecing fever-hit people in the name of patelet infusions.

The Lok Satta leaders said that the people would not have gone through such hardship had powers, responsibilities, resources and personnel been devolved on local governments. They would have attended to problems as they arose and provided relief.

The remarks of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Mayor that officials had not heeded her appeals for road repairs for the last one month eloquently testified to the centralized nature of administration.

The party leaders said district tours by Ministers and the Chief Minister in the name of ‘Praja Patham’ would amount to an eye-wash so long as powers and resources are not devolved upon locally elected people’s representatives.

The State Government move to close down certain sections in Government –run junior colleges on the pretext of inadequate number of students is nothing but a prelude to closure of colleges themselves in the days to come, said the Lok Satta Party here today.

Addressing a media conference, party Working President D. V. V. S. Varma and Secretary P. Bhaskara Rao said the move was part of the Government design to privatize education and cover up its inefficiency.

It was strange the Government sought to shut down sections in junior colleges which provided higher education opportunities to poor, rural children even as it would not bother about engineering colleges which had sprouted to milk Government funds through the fee reimbursement scheme.

Mr. Varma said that the colleges would not go without students if it introduced job-oriented, short-term courses, improved infrastructure and appointed quality faculty.

The Lok Satta leaders welcomed the Anti Corruption Bureau inquiry into APIIC land deals with Emaar and other companies and demanded that special courts be set up to go into corruption cases against top officials and politicians.

Mr. Varma took exception to CPI leader K. Narayana’s call to people to hang the Prime Minister and burn leaders. Far from creating a revolution, such calls would undermine democracy. Leaders should try to elevate public discussion and not promote hatred and clashes to get publicity mileage.