Ambati blames TDP chief for Punganur violence

Narasaraopet: Irrigation minister Ambati Rambabu blamed TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu for violence in Punganuru while accusing the former chief minister of trying to ‘destabilise’ the YSRCP government. Addressing the media in Sattenapalli on Saturday, he said it was the YSRCP government which started Rayalaseema lift irrigation scheme works to solve the drinking and irrigation problems of in Punganur, Madanapalle, Pileru and Thamballapalle. He claimed that when the police requested Chandrababu Naidu to go back from Punganur Bypass Road, he refused and tried to go to Punganur but the police obstructed him.

“The TDP activists pelted stones and beer bottles at the police. They set fire to the police vans. When the TDP activists clashed with the police, the YSRCP activists were not there. Though Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan is the son of a police constable, he has no sympathy for police injured in the clash. In spite of it, he is supporting the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu,” Rambabu said.

He criticised that during his 14-year tenure as chief minister, Naidu had failed to provide drinking water to Kuppam. To cover his failures, he had hatched a conspiracy and incited violence in Punganur, he added.