Describing the ongoing Odarpu Yatra taken up by ex-MP, Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, after one-and-a-half years of the death of former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy as irrelevant, the 20-point programme implementation committee chairman, Dr N. Tulasi Reddy, advised Mr Jagan to change the nomenclature of his tour to ‘Teertha Yatra.’ He suggested that Mr Jagan continue his tour programme to take up the problems of people instead.

Reacting sharply to the criticism from the Jagan group that both the Congress and Telugu Desam were involved in match-fixing in the recently held MLC polls, the chairman said that there was cross-voting even from supporters of the Jagan group to the Congress and Telugu Desam. Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, the chairman referred to the persistent demand from the Opposition for setting up a joint legislature committee to probe graft in allotment of lands during the late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s regime, and said that government was committed to expose graft and punish the guilty; he added that government was ready to constitute a JLC if there was need.

Turning his attention to the implementation of the 20 point programme, the chairman said that the number of families in the BPL category which used to be around 60 per cent in the country in 1975, came down to nearly 26 per cent at present, and in case of the state, was only 16 per cent. He said that as part of implementation of the programme, more SCs had benefited and added that they were carrying out periodical reviews of implementation at the state and district levels.

Meanwhile at Kakinada, the chairman described Mr Jagan as a “property successor” of Y.S Rajasekhar Reddy whereas the agriculture minister, Mr Y.S Vivekananda, was the true successor of the YSR political legacy. He also branded the YSR Congress as a fake political party and blamed its leader for daydreaming of grabbing power in the ensuing polls in 2014. He said that the Congress which had a chequered history of 126 years would emerge much stronger as was the case in the recently concluded MLC polls.