Telangana BJP continued to target Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for his ‘foreign hand cloudburst theory’ behind the Godavari floods which has caused loss of lives, extensive loss to agriculture and properties in some districts, on Monday.
Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy tweeted requesting the Chief Minister to present any evidence about the foreign forces behind the cloudburst to the Centre for taking up a proper investigation since he would not have made the statement without any kind of ‘preliminary information’.
“We have become a laughing stock of the nation. If KCR is sure about a foreign hand behind the recent floods due to cloudburst, he should inform the Centre as it has the investigative agencies to deal with the matter. It is not right to make such baseless claims without having proper knowledge,” said former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy.
Addressing a press conference at the party office, Mr. Reddy tried to explain that with the help of a presentation that there is little chance of any cloudburst happening especially during monsoon in these parts. It is possible through cloud seeding through an airplane or near mountain ranges but Telangana is too far for China or Pakistan to plan a cloudburst to damage Telangana, he observed.
The BJP leader welcomed KCR’s tour of the flood-affected areas and interacting with the people but urged him to “keep up his new promise of sanctioning ₹1000 crore for developing new colonies and other infrastructure to prevent Bhadrachalam from being flooded”.
Similar promises were made during the Warangal floods and ₹10,000 to each family during the GHMC flooding, but “they were not kept,” he charged. The TRS government has been ignoring demands to give compensation to farmers hit by floods and unseasonal rains and called for release of a white paper about the same for the last eight years. Telangana farmers are also being denied the benefits of the PM farm insurance scheme for no reason, he felt and said the hallmark of good leaders is to admit their mistakes and take up remedial measures.
Women’s wing
In a separate development, the women’s wing of the party led by K. Geetha Murthy met the National Woman Commission chairperson Rekha Sharma and presented a memorandum seeking constitution of a special committee to stop “on-going crimes against women and children” and also provide protection for their safety.
“We are not blaming the police or any particular department, but we are requesting the government to see that, the accused is not left free after the trial is completed citing technical lacunas such as not framing proper sections, not producing proper evidence, etc.,” she said, listing out the recent cases in the twin cities and other parts of the State in recent times.
Though the party had made efforts to reach out to the State Commission for Women, “there is no concrete action taken in delivering justice to these hapless victims,” she said. The TRS government has also failed to take preventive measures and funds meant for providing relief and rehabilitation are not utilized properly. She sought a strong direction from the NCW to the State government to speed up investigations in such cases, punish the accused at the earliest and save the women and children from agony.
