Jana Sena Long March: Pawan Kalyan serves ultimatum to Jagan Mohan Reddy

Visakhapatnam: Announcing a battle with the AP government, Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief Pawan Kalyan on Sunday served an ultimatum to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Pawan gave two weeks to the government to resume sand supply in the state and pay compensation to construction workers who committed suicide in the state.

He was addressing a mammoth crowd at the Old Jail road on Sunday evening in Vizag after the Long March. Pawan warned that if the problem were not addressed by then, he would walk the streets of Amaravati. “Let the Chief Minister deploy police and even the army, I am not afraid,” the actor-turned-politician told the crowd of construction workers, who came from different parts of the state.

He also demanded Rs 50,000 for each worker, drawing from the workers’ welfare fund, which has over Rs 1,200 crore. Similarly, he asked for a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each of the 36 workers who lost their lives since sand supply stopped in the state.

Actor-turned-politician and JSP president Pawan Kalyan undertook a march against the new sand policy of YSRCP government, which heavily hit building construction workers. Coming down heavily on the new sand policy, the Jana Sena chief said that the new sand policy has led to a shortage of sand, making it costlier.

With the shortage of sand, lakhs of construction workers have lost their livelihood. “The CM has been providing flimsy excuses, stating that rains and floods inundated the sand reaches. However, he is not aware that the neighbouring states are also reeling under floods, but construction work is going on in all the states,” he added.

Pawan Kalyan said that the AP government’s worst sand policy had brought the construction sector to a halt in all parts of the state. Lakhs of construction workers lost their jobs, and over 36 workers in the state committed suicide, unable to feed their families.

There is no democracy in the state. There is “eka swamyam” and not “praja swamyam”, he noted. Pawan also came down hard on Rajya Sabha member V Vijaysai Reddy and Minister K Kannababu for making irrational remarks against him.

Initially, Pawan planned to undertake the rally on-foot, but due to the huge crowd and taking suggestions from the police, he completed the march by travelling on a top-open vehicle

Extending their support to Pawan, TDP leaders Ch Ayyanna Patrudu, K Atchannaidu and thousands of JSP activists and building constructions workers joined the march on Sunday. However, the leaders of CPI, CPM and BJP avoided taking part in the rally.

Jana Sena Chief #PawanKalyan launched the 2.8km-Long march from Telugu Talli statue at Maddilapalem and ended at Mahatma Gandhi Statue located near GVMC office in Vizag. a large number of activists, students of Andhra University and a few others joined the #LongMarch pic.twitter.com/To07uSUz6U

— NewsMeter (@NewsMeter_In) November 3, 2019

The Jana Sena chief launched the 2.8km-Long march from Telugu Talli statue at Maddilapalem and ended at Mahatma Gandhi Statue located near GVMC office in Vizag. It took almost 70 minutes (from 4 pm to 5.15 pm) to complete the Long March. Despite several restrictions arch, a large number of activists, students of Andhra University and a few others joined the Long March and made it a super success.

Speaking at the occasion, Ayyanna Patrudu called CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy as a criminal and mentioned that the latter destroyed all sectors in the state. YSRC government’s sand policy heavily hit over 110 industries in the state and construction workers lost their jobs for the past three months, he added.