
Despite continuous drizzle all through the day, a large number of people thronged the streets to receive Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) founder Chiranjeevi, who kick-started his third leg of Praja Ankita Yatra today.
Chiranjeevi arrived at Hindupur this morning and started his yatra from Gorantla town.
As part of his road show, the PRP chief addressed meetings at various places in Gorantla, Puttaparthi, Penukonda, Hindupur and Lepakshi.
He mainly highlighted people’s problems like price rise, poor roads and sufferings of groundnut farmers.
Although Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy belonged to Anantapur district, he failed to come to the rescue of groundnut farmers, Chiranjeevi said and added that the former was the least bothered about the plight of groundnut farmers.
Braving the showers, people waited patiently right from the morning to catch a glimpse of Chiranjeevi and hear him speak. They greeted him even from roof-tops of houses.
Chiranjeevi also took potshots at Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. “Praja Rajyam, if voted to power, will implement all the existing welfare schemes without giving scope for corruption,’’ he said. The existing schemes were good, but there was a lot of corruption involved in their implementation, the PRP chief contended. He clarified that he never wanted the scrapping of the present schemes.
Reacting to the Chief Minister’s recent statement that the ‘change’ the PRP meant was to cancel the existing schemes, Chiranjeevi said ‘change’ intended by him was implementing the schemes without graft.
’How can the State Government boast of development when the rural folks are deprived of potable water,’’ Chiranjeevi wondered. He assured that the PRP would solve all the problems.
Chiranjeevi said although Anantapur topped the State in the alphabetical order, it was last in terms of development.While recalling some scenes from his blockbuster movie ‘Indra’ which had Rayalaseema background, Chiranjeevi said, ‘’It has been my dream to visit Anantapur district.’’ He said he had visited other districts in the Rayalaseema region, but this was his first visit to Anantapur district.