Reddy urges opposition to cross-check growth

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy yesterday offered to charter an aircraft for leaders of opposition parties to undertake a nationwide tour and assess for themselves how development programmes in other states compared with local initiatives.

With his government set to complete four years in office, Reddy told a meet-the-press programme that he was ready to hire an aircraft to enable those in doubt about the strides the state was taking to cross-check with the scenario in other major states.

"No other big state in the country is witnessing development and welfare on this scale," he asserted.

"Let us go to other state capitals and villages and spend one or two weeks studying development and welfare programmes there and compare the same with what we have achieved here in four years," he said.

YSR, as the chief minister is popularly known, dared leader of the opposition and Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu to commission any reputed agency to assess the state's development.

Credibility

Listing the achievements of his government, Reddy said "credibility, compassion and courage" were the strengths of his administration. "We have high credibility because we fulfilled every single promise we made during 2004 elections. We have gone even beyond to meet the needs of the people. We did not promise Rs2-a-kg rice, but we are implementing it," he said.

With the government facing by-elections in four parliament and 18 assembly constituencies on May 29, Reddy was confident people would compare the performance of his government with its predecessor and support the government.