Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao should visit flood-hit areas of Hyderabad and take immediate measures to help the affected families. He also accused the TRS Government of hiding the number of deaths due to floods across the Telangana State.
Speaking to media persons after visiting B.S. Makhta and other flood-hit areas of Khairtabad constituency, Uttam Kumar Reddy said at least 30 people were feared killed, thousands of families have lost their property and valuables worth crores of rupees and hundreds of people are forced to abandon their submerged houses and live in relief camp or at their relatives’ houses. However, the devastation has not changed the behaviour and attitude of CM KCR. Instead of holding a review on the flood situation, CM KCR had a review meeting on horticulture. He asked whether the subject of horticulture was more important than the lives and properties of citizens of Hyderabad. He compared KCR with the Roman emperor Nero who was playing the flute when Rome was burning. Just like Nero, KCR did not show any concern towards the sufferings of common people both due to his ineffectiveness and insensitive attitude.
Uttam said that the devastation caused due to floods was not only due to unprecedented rainfall, but it was primarily due to the failure of TRS Government in managing the civic infrastructure, especially the storm water drains. “Minister KTR’s claim of TRS Govt spending Rs. 67,000 crore on Hyderabad’s development in the last six years is ridiculous. Nothing has been done to repair, maintain or upgrade the storm water drains. The Monsoon Action Plan has just remained on paper. Almost all roads turned into pools whenever it rained for a few hours. Many localities got submerged for several times in the last two months during rains. But nothing was done to find a permanent solution. Instead, people were cheated with the wrong claims of Hyderabad turning into a global city,” he alleged.
The TPCC Chief claimed that more than 100 people were killed due to rain-related incidents across Telangana in the last two days. However, he alleged that the State Government was hiding the real figures of deaths as it did with deaths due to Covid-19. He also alleged that several localities in Hyderabad and its outskirts were submerged for the last two days and no assistance, including food or drinking water has been provided to them. He asked CM KCR not to take the situation lightly as affected people might vent out their anger soon.
Earlier, Reddy interacted with the affected people and also distributed relief. He assured that that he would pressurise the government for quick relief measures. He appealed to all Congress leaders to actively participate in the relief measures and help people in distress. He also spoke to the concerned officials over phone and demanded relief measures on war footing.