Amaravati: Y S Jagan has no right to continue

Amaravati: YSRCP president and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who opposed Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), is not fit to continue as Chief Minister, said BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana. "When the Bill for amendment was introduced in Parliament, the YSRCP supported it in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. But now Jagan has taken the U-turn and saying that he is opposing it," he said.

In an interview with The Hans India on Thursday, Lakshminarayana spoke on a range of issues from CAA to three capitals proposed by the Jagan government.

He said while taking oath as chief minister, Jagan promised that he would respect the laws and Acts made by the Parliament and Assemblies, but now he was disapproving them and hence he was unfit to continue in the office.

He also said that those who could not fight the Prime Minister Narendra Modi politically were resorting malicious and misleading propaganda against the CAA. "The law is not against the Indian citizens whatever religion they practice. It appears that the opposition parties are demanding citizenship to Muslims coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. But the Centre will not allow such people into our country," he asserted.

On shifting of capital to Vizag from Amaravati, the BJP leader said it was only for the sake of real estate mafia. The YSRCP land mafia landed in the Visakhapatnam and began grabbing lands from the poor and common people using threats and intimidation, he alleged.

"The whole business of making already developed city Vizag as executive capital in the name of decentralisation is about serving the interests of land mafia and to benefit from the valuable lands in the city and surroundings. Our party has been consistently demanding release of report submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) into land scams in Vizag, the Chief Minister has been maintaining silence," said Lakshminarayana.

He accused Jagan of opening up all opportunities for the land scams in Vizag and started promoting the city as executive capital. He said Jagan and his followers want to reap financial benefits by indulging in criminal activities in the already developed port city which was amply visible.

Reacting to distribution of lands in Amaravati capital region to the poor under the housing scheme, Lakshminarayana said that the Chief Minister was only using it as a tool to create unrest in this area. He warned that that it was a dangerous tactic of the Jagan. "By giving lands to the poor, Jagan wants to pit agriculture labourer against the farmers who parted with the lands for the capital," he added. Stating that BJP always welcomes distribution of land to the poor, but considers this an insincere and political move.

He suggested that the state government submit Utilisation Certificates as asked by the Union government and get the funds for construction of the Polavaram project. The project was being delayed only due to the apathy on the part of the state government, he added.