Man in a Hurry ; Once a Die-Hard Opponent of His Predecessor's Style, Reddy has Now Metamorphosed Into a Frequent Flyer Like Naidu Himself
Summary
Among the many reasons cited for the Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) electoral debacle in the 2004 Assembly polls was the then chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's penchant for invoking the name of the poor in everything he did when in reality he did precious little for the poor. Audits now show that during his second term in office between 1999 and 2004, Naidu's travel bills alone amounted to Rs 17.24 crore and mandarins managing the cash-strapped exchequer are said to even have diverted money allocated for the renovation and maintenance of the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in Delhi and Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad to meet the expenses of Naidu's helicopter sorties.
Naidu's successor Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy may well be trying hard to catch up. The Congress chief minister is a frequent flyer. A six- day visit to China earlier this year, ostensibly to "study ways to improve the state's agrarian economy by borrowing from the China model", has enthused him enough to set out on a nine-day, three- nation tour from July 4. The objective? What else: to bring fresh investments to the state.See the full content of this document
Extract
Man in a Hurry ; Once a Die-Hard Opponent of His Predecessor's Style, Reddy has Now Metamorphosed Into a Frequent Flyer Like Naidu Himself
This time, his tour takes him first to Israel. Reddy is exploring how the state can benefit more from Israel, which made available drip irrigation-related technologies to the state in the days of his predecessor Naidu, who used it mainly to develop his Kuppa...
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