Before the Assembly polls, Telugu Desam Party leader Nara Chandrababu Naidu promised that free sand would be available if a coalition government came into office in Andhra Pradesh. In keeping with his promise, the coalition government is now in office and under such a coalition government, the Andhra Pradesh government has issued a notification allowing sand transport at a vastly affordable rate.
The government has fixed a fee amounting to just a minimal amount on sand per ton. The Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu announced that one must not be charged any fees for extracting sand on their own. However, controversy has been created by charges levied by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSR Congress leader Y.S. Jagan. On Friday, Jagan addressed the media from his residence at Tadepalli Palace.
The government of Chandrababu Naidu hiked the rates of sand all along claiming to give it free. Former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan castigated the coalition government in Andhra Pradesh for their move, questioning on what grounds they had said they would provide the sand free if they were now charging more. Jagan also alleged that all the sand contractors are from the Telugu Desam Party, so all this was part of a strategy. Jagan alleged that Chandrababu Naidu’s government had awarded the sand contracts to the TDP leaders as expected. In his comments, he said when the people were busy in Dasara celebrations, the Chandrababu government had awarded those contracts to its leaders of the TDP. He added that in his regime, his government used to provide sand and bring it before the public with complete transparency. And with this, no scope for sand availability would be there for anyone, he added.
Responding to the claims by Jagan, Telugu Desam Party activists began ridiculing him. Whenever the “sand problem” came up in the nation, they say Jagan’s name popped up, and that it was ironic that he commented upon the price of sand. They said that it was YSR Congress leaders who historically sold sand at exorbitant rates in Andhra Pradesh. According to leaders in TDP, the public is now well-informed on the prices at which the YSR Congress leaders sold sand during the chief ministership of Jagan; the party has lost people’s trust in view of the various allegations that have been perpetrated by the party lately.
