Chandrababu Rule Is A Curse For Jute Mills, Sugar Factories  

Kothapeta, Vizianagaram district: This morning a group of people from the most backward sections of society came and met me during the course of my Padayatra near the Y-Junction here. Incidentally, most of them were jute mill workers. They suffered from twin tragedies—on the one hand, they lost their jobs, and on the other, the Hud Hud cyclone had knocked their homes down and uprooted their lives. They expressed their anguish stating that though three years had lapsed since the cyclone devastated the region, not a single home was given to any one of them.

Women who met me near Santosh Nagar told me that the colony had no drinking water supply. There were no taps in the area and as a result, they were forced to cross the busy highway—a perilous day to day exercise—to fetch water. No matter how many times they represented this issue to the authorities, it had no effect, they complained.

What is worse, they said, is that they did not so much as have a toilet facility which compelled them to look for desolate, deserted places to answer nature’s call. The indifference of the government to their plight pained me deeply.

All along the way jute mill workers came and interacted with me. Without jobs and unable to find work as daily wage labourers, their plight was indescribable. Chandrababu Naidu had promised to support jute mills, assured them that the wages of workers in these mills would be hiked and that agreements would be made to this effect. These were his commitments at the time of elections. Forget increases in their wages, the workers lamented that existing jute mills had been shut down leading to their unemployment. Chandrababu Naidu had declared in a public meeting at Dwarapudi village adopted by Ashok Gajapathi Raju that all closed jute mills would be revived. As for the man who worked as a union minister, he claims ignorance on the subject of jute mills! A former labour minister from North Andhra is completely indifferent. Yet another minister who crossed over to another party in the name of service to the public, is completely lax and slack and does precious little.

With government support not forthcoming, and with power tariffs rising by the day, more and more jute mills are shutting down. If these mill workers find themselves at the receiving end of things without jobs and any means of support, it is only because of the apathy of the ruling party leaders.

The chief minister has converted urban health centres in cities to Arogya Kendras in nomenclature. But that is not all—the budget given to them has been hiked fivefold and then these centres turned over to corporate hands. Neither the services in the hospital have grown or changed, nor has there been an increase in the wages of the staff. Who is benefiting from this increase in the budget then? The staff who met me expressed their anguish about this.

I have a question for the chief minister—is it not true that ranging from cottage industries to jute mills and sugar factories, all of them face closure in your rule? Instead of supporting and reviving existing industries, doesn’t travelling abroad in the name of investments and industries amount to rank deception?

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