TDP national spokesman K Pattabhi Ram urges YSRCP government not to ruin AP Fibernet

Amaravati: TDP national spokesman K Pattabhi Ram on Saturday asserted that their party would not keep silent if the Jagan Mohan Reddy government continued its efforts to destroy a nationall role model project like AP Fibernet that was launched during the Chandrababu Naidu regime.

Pattabhi advised the ruling YSRCP leaders to stop making baseless allegations that Rs 2,000 crore corruption took place in the Fibernet project. How can Rs 2,000 crore be misused when the entire project cost was just Rs 770 crore, he wondered while observing that the Jagan government was not able to prove any irregularity in the project in the past two years of its rule.

Addressing a press conference here, the TDP leader appealed to the people to understand how the Chief Minister and his advisors were still trying to mislead and divert attention from their corruption by making unfounded allegations. Even after two years of rule, the Chief Minister was still trying to make false corruption allegations against the TDP only to cover up his government's total failures and non-stop misdeeds.

Pattabhi said that the TDP regime successfully implemented the Fibernet project under which there were connections in over 5,300 villages spread over 658 mandals in AP as of now. In the united AP state itself, Chandrababu initiated this project which was later neglected by the Congress but once again revived by the TDP in the residuary state of AP.

The AP Fibernet has eventually emerged a role model for the entire country. It was with a politically ulterior motive that the YSRCP regime was making crooked allegations of corruption.

Pattabhi recalled how Chandrababu Naidu made extensive consultations with the experts in order to give the AP Fibernet connections at very low rates. It was possible eventually after the cables were run on top of the electricity poles throughout the state. This network was developed for a length of 25,000 km. This method was used since underground cabling would require massive funds.

The TDP leader said that over 2,500 points of pressure (POPs) were set up across the state in order to provide connections to all the villages. All this was made possible within 18 months. The success of this project was such that the then secretary of the Union telecommunications department led a Central team to study it for replication in the country.

The Union secretary held a press conference in Visakhapatnam and praised the AP Fibernet project. He also advised all other states in the country to follow the AP model.

Pattabhi recalled that even the Prime Minister lauded the AP Fibernet while addressing the Digital India project meeting in July 2016. He had also suggested that other states may follow the AP model to pass on the benefits to their respective peoples.