Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday gave a call for a ‘non-cooperation’ movement against what he described as “forced collections” by the Jaganmohan Reddy government in the name of the “unlawful” One Time Settlement (OTS) house registration scheme.
Naidu asserted that the ‘Jagananna Sampoorna Gruha Hakku Pathakam’ (the official name of OTS) is in total violation of the spirit of Dr BR Ambedkar’s constitution. “The architect of India’s constitution strongly advocated empowerment of the poor people but the OTS scheme of Jagan Reddy was aimed at cheating and looting the poor beneficiaries of decades-old government housing schemes,” he said.
The TDP chief said that they decided to start the anti-OTS agitation on Monday itself to mark the 65th death anniversary of Ambedkar being observed all over the country. He garlanded a photo of Ambedkar at the TDP central office in Amaravati and paid rich tributes.
Addressing a press conference later at Amaravati, Naidu said that the OTS scheme once again exposed the “bankruptcy” of CM Jagan Reddy. “Instead of fulfilling his pre-poll promise to give free registrations, the chief minister was now using coercive methods to collect OTS amounts. The district collectors and mandal level officials were fixing targets for the grama and ward secretariats,” he remarked.
Chandrababu Naidu called upon the poor to not be afraid of the threats about denial of social pensions, no dues certificates, government benefits and revenue services. “The poor beneficiaries should take part in the non-cooperation movement. All people’s organisations, NGOs, intellectuals and political parties, except YSRCP, were totally against the Sampoorna Gruha Hakku scheme,” Naidu said.
Naidu then said that property registrations would be legal and valid in a court of law only when they would be registered in the registrars’ offices. “The OTS registrations for lakhs of poor beneficiaries at the level of ‘grama sachivalayas’ would be totally illegal. It is nothing but ‘cheating’ on the part of the Chief Minister to cause such injustice and misfortune to the poor families,” he added.
Describing OTS as a noose around necks of poor people, Naidu said the police and revenue officials would be held totally accountable if they violated the rights of the poor people in their over enthusiasm. “Santa Bommali MPDO gave orders for not paying social pensions till OTS amounts were paid. Marripadu MPDO fixed targets and ordered denial of all sorts of revenue services,” he said.