Press Releases Archive

The Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government undertake road repair works on a war footing by allocating at least Rs.1000 crore immediately.

Addressing a media conference, party spokesperson Katari Srinivasa Rao and Yuva Satta State Vice-President P.Sivaji said that State highways and major district roads to a length of at least 12000 km of the total 42511 km are extensively damaged and of them roads to a length of 5000 km-6000 km are unfit for travel.

While road restoration works alone will cost Rs.3000 crore, the State Government has allocated only Rs.750 crore to the Roads and Buildings Department during 2010-11.

The crater-filled roads are backing the breaks of passengers, damaging vehicles, and resulting in frequent traffic jams and fuel wastage, Lok Satta leaders said. More than two crore people in the State travel by road in some 78 lakh vehicles to a distance of 25 crore km every day.

They pointed out that the Government has not been strictly enforcing conditions under which contractors who build roads like those between Kurnool and Kadapa, and Eluru and Rajamundry have to undertake their maintenance too.

The State Government, the Lok Satta leaders said, is guilty of even diverting grants under Central Road Funds for building new roads instead of maintaining roads linking rural and urban areas.

Roads are getting damaged in the wake of heavy rains this year because quality standards are not maintained when they are initially laid. The meager funds allocated for repairs are squandered away on patchworks.

The Lok Satta Party today asked the Government to empower the TTD Specified Authority to preserve and protect the sanctity of the devasthanam and render better services to common people by eliminating corruption and utilizing every paisa devotees offer to the God.

The Government had so far winked at widespread corruption in the TTD as it had turned it into a political rehabilitation center, said Mr. D. V. V. S. Varma, party’s Working President in a media statement. The Government should expiate its sins at least now by ceasing to play political games.

Mr. Varma said that institutional mechanisms utilizing modern technology should be in place to prevent and eradicate corruption. A thorough inquiry should be instituted into reports of missing gold coins, diamonds and jewelry. The authority should cancel the arjitha seva tickets booked in advance up to 2030 and their issuance afresh through a secure online system. Corporate houses should be asked to build their modern cottages and guesthouses on hills farther from the temple so that common, middle class pilgrims, who constitute the majority, did not suffer for want of accommodation. The Government should stamp out mafias smuggling in liquor and meat atop the hills with political support.

Mr. Varma suggested that the Specified Authority take steps to allocate 50 percent of the temple’s revenue towards education and health care and constitute health and education mission for utilizing the funds. Temples in districts too with huge incomes should promote educational and health care institutions, he said.