Chandrababu is advisor to Congress government:

YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leader YS Sharmila has alleged that the state government has failed miserably in supplying power to the people despite collecting hefty electricity charges from them.

Addressing a massive public meeting organised as part of her ‘Maro Praja Prasthanam’ yatra at Vuyyur in Krishna district on Saturday, Sharmila said the people were facing hardship due to severe crisis.

Women were facing problems due to short supply of domestic gas refills and the farmers were finding it difficult to save the standing crops.

She alleged that lakhs of workers were thrown out of employment due to closure of industries on account of unprecedented power cuts.

Sharmila ridiculed chief minister Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy’s advice to the people to keep the window doors open to cope with power cuts.

Stating that former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy had never increased power tariffs, she said things would not have come to such a pass if he were alive today.

Alleging that Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president Nara Chandrababu Naidu was responsible for increase in power charges, the YSRCP leader said that he had set up special courts to try poor farmers who could not pay their power bills.

 It was Naidu who had raised the tariff for 1 HP of power from Rs 50 to Rs 625, she recalled.

Terming Naidu an advisor to the Congress-led state government, Sharmila mocked at the TDP’s agitations against the power crisis. She claimed that Naidu had never consoled family members of the agitators who were killed in the infamous Basheerbagh firing during the TDP government.

 He even wrote about the need to increase power charges in his book “Plain Speaking” and was now shedding crocodile tears for the public by launching an agitation on the power crisis.

 Sharmila’s yatra in Vuyyur drew an overwhelming public response causing a traffic jam for several hours on the Vijayawada-Machilipatnam Road.

 Earlier, Sharmila resumed her walkathon at Gosala on the 106th day and toured Kankipadu, Proddutur, Damuluru Cross Road, Chalivendrapalem, Peda Ogirala, Akunuru, China Ogirala and Gandigunta before reaching Vuyyuru.

 Father of minister K Parthsarathy, KP Reddayya met Sharmila at Kankipadu triggering rumours that he was joining YSRCP.