Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader and former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir has blamed the TRS Govt for the huge loss of lives and property due to rains and floods in Telangana State.
“More than 10 people lost their lives in rain-related incidents across Telangana State in the last five to six days. Most of these deaths could have been prevented if the State government would’ve taken enough precautionary measures,” Shabbir Ali alleged in a media statement on Thursday.
Shabbir Ali said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has miserably failed to activate the Disaster Management system in the State despite receiving timely alerts on weather from the Meteorological Department. Further, he said Monsoon Action Plan was not prepared for any district, especially those having big water bodies. “There was absolutely no pre-assessment on the possible impact of heavy rains on the lives of common people. Critical issues like the inundation of low-lying areas, breaching of tanks and lakes, identification of dilapidated structures, weak electricity poles, etc., were completely ignored. Consequently, four people lost their lives due to electrocution when a live electric wire fell on their house in Kamareddy. Similar incidents of electrocution occurred at other places in the State,” he said.
The Congress leader also accused CM KCR of deliberately neglecting the maintenance of old irrigation projects like the Kadam dam in the Adilabad district. He said projects like Kadam Narayana Reddy Project, which was built between 1949 and 1965, required special attention to face any eventuality. A technical snag was reported in 2018 when the officials were unable to open one of the 18 gates to discharge water during huge floods.
Later, the experts proposed increasing the number of spillway gates and also constructing a tunnel to increase the discharge capacity to 5 lakh cusecs. The experts had also proposed the replacement of all 18 gates at a cost of Rs. 300 crores. However, TRS Govt took no action which resulted in the breach of the left side of the bund on Wednesday night due to heavy inflows. He said this situation could have been avoided if the State Govt would’ve maintained the project properly.
He said that at least three deaths have been reported so far due to incidents of wall collapse across Telangana State. “Will the government take action against the officials for not identifying those dilapidated structures and shifting the residents to a safer place?” he asked.
Shabbir said that the Chief Minister should visit the affected areas to assess the situation. He said that KCR wants to remain confined to Pragathi Bhavan or his farmhouse even when lakhs of people are badly affected due to continuous rains and floods. “KCR Govt must understand the importance of taking precautions, providing relief and ensuring rehabilitation of affected people in situations like rains and floods. Holding review meetings in a conference hall of Pragathi Bhavan will not resolve the problem. The Chief Minister must visit all the affected districts to activate the entire machinery. Instead of blaming the nature and God for heavy rains, CM KCR must fix responsibilities and make officials accountable for relief and rehabilitation measures,” he demanded.
The Congress leader also demanded that the State Government form a Special Task Force at the State and District levels to deal with the likely spread of water-borne diseases.
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