Naidu promises free medicare, houses for retired employees

• Rs 1,000 monthly stipend to unemployed
• Fee reimbursement for poor among FCs
• Allowance to Imams and other Muslim leaders
• He covers a distance of 22 km on 16th day
• The walkathon crosses 300 km milestone


Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu playing a percussion instrument during his padayatra in Kurnool district on Wednesday.

Kurnool: TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, who is wooing all sections of the society during his ‘Vastunna Meekosam’ padayatra, on Wednesday promised retired government employees that his government would provide them free medical facilities apart from constructing houses for them free of cost.

Naidu seemed to have made the major promise in a bid to endear the party to the government employees whose dissent was said to be a major reason for his party’s defeat in the last two elections. He said the Congress party misled the people during the TDP rule that the RTC would be privatised, and in fact it was now trying to privatise the corporation.

Earlier, Naidu began his 16th day padayatra from Danapuram at 11 am. A large number of people from various communities like Kuruma, Gangaputra and SCs and Muslims welcomed him into their villages and took part in the padayatra. He addressed a large turnout of people at Danapurm.

During his address, Naidu showered promises upon the unemployed and minorities. He said the TDP government would pay a monthly stipend of Rs 1,000 to all the unemployed youth in the State and would create jobs for them on a large-scale.

He said the fee reimbursement scheme would be extended to the poor among the forward castes, too. He reminded them that the TDP government had filled 1.67 lakh teacher jobs during its stint. Reaching out to the minorities, Naidu said his government would pay an honorary monthly allowance of Rs 5,000 to the religious heads and Rs 3,000 to imams.

From Danapuram, Naidu proceded to Kallubavi Circle, where MRPS and CPI activists extended solidarity to the padayatra. Moving on, he came across the students of Bheema engineering college and spoke to them about his plans to put the State back on the rails. He reached Srinivas Circle in Adoni by 4.15 pm and there a huge meeting was addressed by him.

Continuing his tirade against the Congress party and also the YSR Congress party, he said there was no ideological differences between the two, and the latter was waiting to strike a deal with the Congress to wriggle its president Jaganmohan Reddy out of jail.

He compared Jagan to Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who was mired of late in a major land scam. Referring to the free power scheme for the farming sector, he said his warning that it would result in major power crisis, affecting the farmers, was vindicated by the current turmoil in the sector.

He criticised that the Congress government was not even in a position to hold elections to the local bodies. As a result, the State had lost a Central grant to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore.