Property disputes within the YSR family are always in the news. Recently, a spate of letters exchanged between former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and his sister Y.S. Sharmila surfaced, triggering a new bout of debate. According to reports, Jagan had written to Sharmila suggesting that he wants to reclaim the properties he had reposed trust by shifting them into her name. According to reports, Sharmila reacted sharply to it. These exchanges have gone viral on social media. During his visit to Gurlapadu in Vizianagaram district, Jagan clarified the controversies over some of his properties and narrated his side of the story.
Campaigning for Vizianagaram, Jagan cast some potshots at TDP by accusing the party of politicising personal family matters to deflect attention from his visit. He criticized TDP for exploiting his sister’s and mother’s photographs for political motives and questioned why they were not exposing the same in their own circles. He reminded that many families have such personal matters, and asked TDP to leave the facts untouched for political benefit. He asked the opposition to focus more upon actual public issues. Jagan also castigated TDP and its friends for using a diversion technique to veil their own crimes.
Jagan expressed grave worry at the health tragedy found in Gurla, where the death toll has reached 14 because of diarrhea.
He could not understand why the government could not respond within time; “The first death was on September 20 and after 35 days, nothing came out.”. He also lamented the degradation of governance and healthcare delivery services as opposed to the grassroots-level initiatives implemented by YSRCP, where schemes like the village secretariat and family physician were in full swing and functioning efficiently. He requested the administration to take immediate steps for this present day health crisis.
The Chief Minister has expressed serious concern over the poor quality of water in the Champa River and criticized the government for failing to maintain the water scheme and also not properly chlorinating it for five months. He said that more than 340 patients are undergoing treatment in the Gurla Mandal government hospital and over 100 in private hospitals. Jagan asked why patients could not be shifted to better-equipped facilities in Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram. He condemned officials for the advice being given to bereaved families not to write down diarrhea as the cause of death. At this juncture, the specialized doctors from the community health centers were taken away, which further aggravated the situation.
He made a humanitarian gesture by announcing that the YSR Congress Party, or YSRCP, would provide financial assistance of ₹2 lakhs to each of the families affected by the diarrhea outbreak. He appealed to the opposition to stop their diversionary politics and offer an apology to the public. Jagan also targeted the wrong focus of the government when he said that they called the DGP in a helicopter to extinguish a fire incident in Madanapalle, in which the health crisis and death toll there were largely overlooked. He again bashed Chandrababu for his eternal penchant towards escape mechanisms rather than standing with the people in the hour of crisis.