Women Unsafe In Chandrababu Naidu Regime: Jagan

Leader Of Opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and YSR Congress Party chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy said on Tuesday that women across the state were not safe under the Chandrababu Naidu government.

Addressing a gathering of women at Dhaniyani Cheruvu village in Anantapur district on day 44 of his Praja Sankalpa Yatra, Jagan said that the Chief Minister was supporting those who stripped a Dalit woman naked in Visakhapatnam's Pendurthi village.

Recalling that no arrests had been made even in the Rishiteshwari and the MRO Vanajakshi cases, Jagan said that the state government was "busy" protecting those who were perpetrating atrocities on women.

Jagan claimed that Naidu had also reneged on every promise he had made to the women during the elections, just as he had to every other section.

The opposition leader also criticized the CM for making education unaffordable to the masses. "During my father's time, there was an educational revolution. Even the poorest of the poor could afford higher education thanks to the fee reimbursements instituted by him. But now the same scheme has been watered down," he lamented.

He said that when the YSRCP came to power, the government would ensure that all the fees paid were fully reimbursed. Also, an additional amount of Rs 20,000 each would be given to the students to support their other expenses, he said.

Promising benefits also to mothers sending their wards to schools, he said that they would be paid Rs 15,000 each a year.

He also promised to bring the pensionable age down from 65 years to 45 years.

Earlier, Nagari MLA Roja, too, addressed the gathering. Women who attended the meeting reportedly had a litany of complaints against the TDP government, the benefits of whose schemes they believed were going only to the members of the ruling party.