Faced with a do-or-die situation, farmers of Amaravati continue to wage the battle desperately to see that the administrative capital of the state is not shifted to Visakhapatnam, providing the much-needed masala for the media for the 13th consecutive day.
The issue continues to occupy most of the space on the front pages of Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy, while Sakshi, which has been ignoring it all these days, is forced to carry the reports in defence of the YSR Congress party government’s decision.
On Tuesday, Sakshi gave a lot of prominence to Bharatiya Janata Party national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member G V L Narasimha Rao’s statement that the Centre would not interfere in the decision of the state government to shift the capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
He said his statement was authentic in the capacity of party spokesperson and the views expressed by any other BJP leaders were their personal.
Andhra Jyothy also carried GVL’s statement on the front page, while Eenadu completely ignored it. However, both these dailies have given big coverage to Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s visit to Guntur jail to call on the arrested farmers and also Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan’s statement clarifying his stand on having all the administrative units at one place.
The high court’s directions to the state government seeking status report on Amaravati was carried by the media, but in different tunes.
The defection of TDP legislator Maddali Giri from Guntur (West) into the YSR Congress party, albeit indirectly, was yet another important news that made the headlines in the major Telugu newspapers.
Sakshi, however, was careful in carrying the report, confining it to Maddali’s criticism of Naidu for instigating the farmers of the capital region.
However, the big news that has become banner in Sakshi and was played up prominently by the other two major dailies was the decision taken by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on the door-delivery of sand to the consumers. This is expected to benefit the consumers immensely and prevent hoarding and black-marketing of sand.
While Eenadu carried a pro-government story as an anchor – it was about extending all the government schemes to the beneficiaries through village secretariats from January 1, it did not find a place even in Sakshi.
On the other hand, Sakshi carried an anchor story on the compliments given by Polavaram Project Authority on the progress of Polavaram works. It was not carried by the other two newspapers.
The conduct of EAMCET-2020 in Andhra Pradesh from April 20 is yet another news that figured prominently in all the three dailies.