Nara Lokesh promises to set up Islamic bank

Srikalahasti: TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh on Tuesday promised to establish Islamic bank once the party forms the government again. After a two-day gap, he resumed his padayatra 'Yuva Galam' on Tuesday and interacted with the representatives of the Muslim community at Srikalahasti of Tirupati district where he recalled the formation of the Minorities Corporation by N T Rama Rao, the founder of the TDP. "Despite the change in the government for the past several years, the corporation was continued but after Jagan Mohan Reddy became the Chief Minister of the state he discontinued it," Lokesh said.

He assured the minority community to revive the corporation once the TDP is back in power. Pointing out that Jagan during his padayatra promised to set up Islamic bank but he did not keep his word, he said, "I am promising you that once the TDP forms the government again this Islamic bank will be established." This Chief Minister discontinued all the welfare schemes launched during the TDP rule, he said and promised to revive all the schemes.

As the 'Yuva Galam' reached 300 km-mark at Thondamanupuram panchayat in Srikalahasti Assembly constituency, he assured the villagers to provide safe drinking water within 100 days of coming back to power. Later, at Thondamanadu village, the TDP national general secretary said that the cheap liquor is now working as pesticide and the farmers instead of the pesticides can use the cheap liquor. He also interacted with women who came to collect their gas cylinders and said that the subsidy on gas cylinders is not being paid to the consumers.

During the day, he met the communities like Gandla, Telikula and Deva Telikula besides groundnut farmers who narrated their problems to him. A farmer told Lokesh that due to spurious seeds and fertilisers the farming community in the district has been facing several problems.

Later, addressing the villagers, Lokesh made it clear that though he strongly opposed the GO No 1 but he will always respect the law. "Though we are peacefully holding the meetings, the state government is unnecessarily creating problems for our programmes," he added. He made it clear that he will not stop his march though the state government is making every effort to create hurdles to him.