The New Year 2020 has begun on a note of jubilation for many and anxiety for some others in Andhra Pradesh.
The beginning of the year brought cheers to over 51,000 employees of state-run Road Transport Corporation (RTC) who have entered the rolls of the state government from today.
“It is a dream come true for RTC workers,” screamed the banner story of Sakshi, the mouthpiece of the YSR Congress party government. A notification to this effect was issued on Tuesday, merging the RTC employees into the newly-formed department of public transport in the state government.
Definitely, it brings a huge mileage to chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy as he steps into the New Year with a lot of enthusiasm and confidence. He also announced that the government would not only provide land sites, but also construct houses for the poorer sections. This was the second lead story in Sakshi.
The launching of Amma Vodi with effect from January 9 was yet another positive story published prominently in Sakshi.
These stories were also carried by Jagan’s rival papers – Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy, significantly, if not as banner stories.
If it was a day of jubilation for the RTC employees and beneficiaries of other schemes of Jagan, it was a gloomy day for the farmers of Amaravati, who have been agitating for the last 15 days against the proposed shifting of administrative capital to Visakhapatnam. The farmers have vowed not to celebrate the New Year Day festivities.
As usual, Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy continued to provide extensive coverage to the farmers’ agitation and gave a lot of importance to the visit of Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan to the villages of Amaravati and also TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu’s reaction to the police restrictions in the capital region.
The CBI raids on Rayapati’s houses and his Transstroy India Ltd offices in Vijayawada, Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Hyderabad also figured on the front pages of the leading dailies.
Sakshi went a step ahead and made an allegation that out of Rs 794 crore defaulted by Rayapati’s company, Rs 250 crore went into the pockets of “Pedda Babu.”
The increase of Laddu price in Tirumala was reported in different ways in different newspapers. Sakshi confined the story to supply of one free laddu to every pilgrim. Andhra Jyothy sought to kick up a controversy over an argument between two head priests over usage of ghee for the lamp of temple in the sanctum sanctorum.
The increase of railway fares and appointment of new chief of army staff were the other important news for the dailies.
