TIRUPATI: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday tore into Opposition Leader N Chandrababu Naidu on his home turf of Chittoor district by holding him responsible for the closure of Chittoor Dairy, which stood as the lifeline of dairy farmers of the region for decades together.
Jagan fulfilled the promise he made during his Praja Sankalpa Yatra for the revival of Chittoor Cooperative Dairy, and exchanged the copies of MoU with representatives of Amul, which will invest Rs 385 crore. He also laid the foundation stone for a medical college in Chittoor.
Addressing a huge public meeting, Jagan came down heavily on Naidu stating that the former CM had orchestrated the destruction of Chittoor Dairy and closed it down in August 2002 to develop his family-owned Heritage. “Chittoor Dairy which was started as a chilling unit, had grown to process 2.5 to 3 lakh litres of milk a day by 1993. But, it was systematically pushed into losses by Naidu, who started Heritage in 1992, between 1992 and 2002,” Jagan alleged.
The conspiracy to rundown Chittoor Dairy was so visible that while it suffered losses during the 10 years, Heritage continued to grow with huge profits every year. “The dairy was closed abruptly leaving lakhs of farmers in the lurch as the management kept pending a huge amount as arrears. The YSRC government repaid the dues of Rs 182 crore and Amul will invest Rs 150 crore in the first phase of Chittoor Dairy revival,” he explained.
The revival of Chittoor Dairy will provide direct employment to 5,000 people and indirect employment to two lakh people, besides benefiting 20 lakh dairy farmers in Rayalaseema.“Not only Chittoor Dairy, but Naidu also sold several sugar factories and paper mills in the cooperative sector and public sector units like Allwyn and Republic Forge to TDP leaders like T Devender Goud and Nama Nageswara Rao for peanuts or closed them down taking kickbacks for encouraging private units,” he charged.
After closing down or selling 54 such units for peanuts through the Department of Implementation during his regime, Naidu unabashedly brought out a book ‘Privatisation, a success story in AP’ After the launch of the Jagananna Pala Velluva programme in December 2020, in partnership with Amul, the milk procurement prices had gone up manifold, benefiting lakhs of dairy farmers, he highlighted, adding that it forced the private dairies to increase the milk procurement prices due to competition.
“For Naidu, there is no difference between father-in-law and farmer as he can backstab anyone,” he remarked and added that some people close to the TDP chief had even created obstacles to the construction of a medical college in Chittoor.
Terming Naidu and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan non-resident politicians, Jagan said they know nothing about social justice. “The two leaders do not reside in our State and if anyone wants to see them, a trip to the neighbouring State is a must, which shows how distant they are from the people,’’ he observed.
Naidu is now thinking of constructing a house in Kuppam 40 years after his public life and at a time when the people are preparing to bid adieu to him permanently, Jagan ridiculed.
Pawan Kalyan, who supported the TDP’s policy of ‘plunder, stash and devour’, has once again joined hands with Naidu and they are trying to cheat the people with false promises ahead of elections, hoping that people’s memory is short. The pack of wolves has come together and is spreading falsehood with the support of friendly media,’’ he observed.
Appealing to the people to think why the previous TDP regime failed to implement welfare schemes, when the present YSRC government has provided Rs 2.23 lakh crore to beneficiaries through DBT schemes in the last four years, Jagan exhorted them to support the YSRC in the next elections if they feel they are benefited.
Responding to the appeal of local MLA A Srinivasulu, the Chief Minister sanctioned Rs 75 crore for development works in the Chittoor Municipal Corporation, agreed to construct Kapu Bhavan and allocated funds for a road-over-bridge. District Collector S Shan Mohan, Energy Minister P Ramachandra Reddy and Amul Dairy MD Jayen Mehta participated in the programme.
