Opposition jealous; 'Swachh Amrut' awards given on merit: AP Minister

Minister for Municipal Administration Botsa Satyanarayana said Andhra Pradesh has been conferred with 10 'Swachh Amrut awards on merit.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, the minister slammed the opposition leaders for their comments on the Swachh Amrut awards. He said the awards were given after a team from the Centre visited the state and witnessed the situation on the ground. He said the state government has been paying special attention to sanitation.

He said the government has rolled out 'CLAP', which aims at making Andhra Pradesh a clean state. Botsa said many such initiatives are being taken up. He said special vehicles were provided to sanitation staff for garbage collection and similarly all the households were given two bins for disposing of their waste.

He stated that objecting to every good initiative has become the sole job of opposition TDP leaders, although Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has been relentlessly working towards the development of the State by prioritizing welfare.

He said TDP leaders have been trying to politicize everything because they are jealous. He recalled how the opposition filed cases in Courts to stop the housing for the poor scheme. He said the government acquired valuable lands to fulfill the dreams of the poor owning a house. "In Amravati, TDP went to Court saying that there will be a demographic imbalance with this initiative," he added.

Botsa said Chief Minister had enhanced the pension to Rs 2500 as promised during elections and there is nothing to politicize about it. He slammed the opposition for what he called cheap politics even on regularizing the prices of movie tickets.

Botsa had flayed opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu over his remarks on the early elections in Andhra Pradesh. He said Naidu has been acting like an Election Commissioner and Chief Advisor to the Centre.