I'm neutral towards Telangana: Naidu

Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu has announced that he was neither against nor supports the formation of separate Telangana State.

Talking to reporters at the NTR Trust Bhavan here on Tuesday, Naidu said that he was completely neutral on the state bifurcation issue. "In case of state's bifurcation, I will be a leader for both Telangana and Seemandhra regions," he hoped.  He said he needs to protect the interest of his party in both the regions.

The TDP chief said that he was aware of the feelings of people from both the regions and therefore, could not support or oppose any of them. He alleged that the Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi have secretly joined hands to finish the Telugu Desam party in Telangana region.

Commenting on the on-going Sakala Janula Samme, Naidu said that the entire Telangana region was pushed into crisis by TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao and JAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram. Further, the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was proved inefficient in handling the crisis. He said the leaders spearheading the Telangana agitation were trying to gain the political mileage without considering that their acts were causing lot of hardship to both the striking employees and the common man.

Regarding the power cuts, Naidu said that the farmers have been suffering due to the power cuts imposed on agricultural sector. Further, the cuts for the industrial sector was resulting in job lesses due to cut in productions. He requested the Singareni Collieries employees to withdraw the strike in the interests of Telangana farmers and workers.

The TDP president also demanded that the government streamline the supply of fertilizers to farmers across the State. He alleged that due to government's inability, an artificial shortage of fertilisers has been created and the farmers would be forced to spend over Rs 2,000 crore to buy fertilisers from the black market.