Press Releases Archive

Stop rabble-rousing, Lok Satta tells TRS

The Lok Satta Party today took strong exception to the indecent personal remarks Mr. Etela Rajender, TRS leader, has made against party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan.

“A politician resorts to rabble rousing when he is ignorant or refuses to take cognizance of facts, or when he realizes his arguments are shallow and devoid of sincerity.”

Talking to the media, party leaders V. Laxman Balaji, G. Raj Reddy, V. Vijayender Reddy and Dr.Panduranga Rao recalled that the Lok Satta has never defended regionalism. On the contrary, it has always studied an issue placed facts before the public. Thanks to centralization of power and corruption, people in all districts of the State continue to remain economically backward. Handloom weavers lead miserable lives whether they happen to be in Chirala in Coastal Andhra or Sircilla in Telangana and there is little difference between the migration of people in search of work and livelihood from Mahbubnagar in Telanana and Srikakulam in North Coastal Andhra.

The Lok Satta leaders pointed out that any discussion on backwardness in different regions of the State should be based on facts and figures compiled by organizations like the Statistics Department in Andhra Pradesh, the Central Statistical Organization, the National Sample Surveys, and the Census, and not through baseless allegations.

The Lok Satta would welcome a debate on backwardness in different regions of the State by associating national and State-level experts. The Lok Satta would place the facts it was collecting before the public soon, they revealed.

The Lok Satta Party, they said, wanted an amicable settlement to the present political crisis in the State based on facts and would wholeheartedly welcome any outcome. The party has, however, no illusions that any settlement resulting in the State’s bifurcation or the continuance of the united State would resolve people’s problems. A real solution lies in empowering people through decentralization of power via formation of district governments and ensuring quality education and health care, livelihood skills and employment opportunities to all.

The Lok Satta leaders wanted TRS leaders to behave with dignity and decency and in accordance with the Constitution and to stop slinging mud at a leader who won the election to the Assembly without inducing voters with money and liquor and has been responsible for far-reaching reforms in governance in the country.

Monday, March 1, 2010 - 21:50

Dr. JP asks Yuva Satta to train 50000 young leaders

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan today called upon the Yuva Sattta to recruit and train at least 50,000 workers who would pursue politics for building a better society. If the Yua Satta succeeds in its mission by 2014, it will have created a big social asset.

Addressing the just-formed State Working Committee of the Yuva Satta, Dr. JP asked the youth wing to take the ensuing elections to civic bodies including municipalities and panchayats as an opportunity to build new leadership.

Dr. JP pointed out that the recent agitation for a separate Telangana also mirrored people’s revulsion for politics. But hatred for politics would not serve any purpose since everything concerning people revolved round politics. A solution lay only in bettering politics.

Yuva Satta President Dasari Ratnam, Advisor Dr. Panduranga Rao, Vice President G. Mangala, General Secretaries Raja Ramakrishna Varma, Anjaneyulu, and Ramana Reddy, and Secretary Sridevi were among those who attended the meeting.

Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 18:09

Pranab could have empowered local Governments: Dr. JP

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan was all praise for Union Finance Minister for reining in fiscal deficit and putting the economy back on the growth path but faulted him for failing to empower the third tier of government – the local bodies – with devolution of resources.

Commenting on the Union Budget for 2010-11, Dr. JP pointed out that the 13th Finance Commission recommendations along with Centrally-sponsored schemes would transfer nearly 3.5 lakh crore to Rs.4 lakh crore from the Government of India to States. Of it, a mere 1.5 percent amounting to less than Rs.10000 crore was to go to local bodies. Without devolution of resources to local bodies in tune with the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments, there would not be any improvement in people’s lives.

Dr. JP complimented Mr. Pranab Mukherjee for taking steps towards fiscal consolidation with calibrated withdrawal of stimulus packages and bringing down the fiscal deficit from 7.8 % in 2008-09 to 6.9 percent in 2009-10 and planning to reduce it to 5.4% in 2011-12. He also gave credit to the Finance Minister for the country inching towards a growth rate of 7.2% in 2009-10 notwithstanding poor rainfall in many parts of the country, and aiming at a growth rate of 8.5 percent in 2011-12.

Dr. JP, who described the increase in petroleum product prices as inevitable whichever party happened to be in power, regretted that the Union Finance Minister had not paid any attention to subsidizing public transport. The Union Finance Minister, who levied a cess on coal to encourage clean technologies in the context of global warming, should have thought of public transport as a complementary means to curb emission of harmful gasses by the ever proliferating private transport vehicles.

Although Mr. Pranab Mukherjee held forth on poverty eradication – the ruling party’s mantra since 1971 --, he was short on action. Poverty could not be eradicated unless the Government focused on providing quality education and health care to every child and on enhancing skills of the millions of the unemployed. It was the fear over livelihood prospects that prompted the youth to take to agitations in Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, one of the senior most politicians with rich experience, did not display vision in making a frontal assault on poverty through promotion of education and healthcare. Instead, he confined himself to schemes like the NREGS that fetched votes.

Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has also failed to focus on improving agricultural productivity and contented himself with allocating a token Rs.400 crore to Eastern India.

Dr. JP, who welcomed the relief given to income tax payers, wondered why the Union Finance Minister had not bothered about raising the tax base. The Union Government’s direct tax revenue constituted a mere 12% of the GDP whereas it is 40% in the U.S. and nearly 50% in the U.K.

Friday, February 26, 2010 - 17:56

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