TDP to launch stir against coastal corridor

Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, Jul 15 (UNI) Telugu Desam Party Politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu today said the party would soon chalk out a state-level agitation programme against the settting up of a Coastal Industrial Corridor between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada and policy of indiscriminate acquisition of fertile lands for SEZs.

Addressing mediapersons here, he charged that ''already 7,200 acres of land were acquired for the Kakinada SEZ, but not even a single unit has come up so far, including the much-publicised refinery.'' Attempts were being made to acquire another 2,100 acres being claimed as assigned lands in the name of APIIC, only to be transferred to the KSEZ, he added.

''Of late, in the name of Petroleum, Petro Chemical Industries Investment Region (PPCIIR), nearly 30,000 acres was proposed to be acquired for the setting up of petro-chemical industries all along the coast. We oppose the government's action and will resist it with all our might by mobilising the people,'' he said.

Criticising the government for its failure to solve the power crisis, Mr Ramakrishnudu said the state was now reeling under power crisis. Even the capital city of Hyderabad was experiencing prolonged power cuts, which was unprecedented during the past two and a half decades.

He alleged that the state government had failed to anticipate the situation and take advance action.

Ridiculing Finance Minister K Rosaiah for his statement that power crisis was due to failure of rains and not the government's failure, he recalled that when power supply was abundant in previous years, the Congress government claimed credit for it, but it was now attributing the discredit to nature.

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