APCC refutes Naidu's charges on official machinery misuse

Hyderabad, Sep 3 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president K Keshava Rao today refuted the allegations of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu that the official machinery was misused during Congress president Sonia Gandhi's visit to the State.

Talking to newspersons here, he said the APCC had incurred the entire expenditure at Guntur meeting though it was the State Government's function for launching 'Indiramma' Housing Programme with peoples' participation.

Mr Rao said APCC had paid the entire bill to the APSRTC for the buses hired from them. APSRTC Managing Director had refused to provide buses without taking the money in advance, citing that some political parties earlier had not paid the bills for the buses hired by them for their meetings, he alleged.

He said Mr Naidu, who was the Chief Minister of the state for nearly nine years, should not have made such comments on the other political party's meetings and programmes.

He claimed that by making such allegations against the Government and the Congress, TDP president had shown his frustration, as he could not digest the popularity gained by the Congress Government for its welfare programmes for the people of the State.

Referring to the Opposition's allegation that Ms Gandhi did not visit Hyderabad to console the family members of the bomb blasts victims, he said it was not a big issue and reiterated the party's stand in not giving importance to terrorist activities.

He said, there should, however, be an internal mechanism with peoples' participation to contain terrorism with an iron hand.

The mechanism should be a continuous process to wean away terrorism from the State, he added.

UNI