Shabbir Ali slams KCR govt for erratic assessment of loss in flood fury

Hyderabad, July 27 (Maxim News): Former minister and former leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir has accused the TRS government of not conducting proper enumeration of losses caused by torrential rains and floods.

Shabbir Ali, in a media statement on Wednesday, alleged that the State government has failed to activate the mechanism to conduct proper enumeration of losses caused due to recent rains and floods. “The report sent by the State Government to the Centre on losses of Rs 1,400 crore suffered by various departments due to heavy rains and floods was just preliminary and incomplete. No serious efforts were being made by the State Government to enumerate the actual losses, especially the losses suffered by farmers,” he alleged.

The Congress leader said the actual losses were much higher than what was estimated a week ago. He said various parts of Telangana State have been receiving rainfall continuously for the last 10 to 15 days. Hundreds of colonies have been inundated while thousands of houses were permanently or temporarily damaged. In addition to the losses caused to standing crops, saplings were damaged in many districts. He said crops spread across lakhs of acres of land have been damaged. Instead of conducting a detailed enumeration, the State government was trying to understate the damage by coming up with an estimated figure, he said.

Shabbir Ali said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao did not handle the flood situation properly. “CM KCR did not react to the weather predictions to alert the district administration. He woke up only after rains and floods played havoc in many districts. He conducted a review meeting as a formality and made a symbolic visit to Bhadrachalam. To divert people’s attention, he alleged there was an ‘international conspiracy’ behind the cloudburst,” he said.

He said the Chief Minister did not conduct a meeting to check the status of flood relief works. He said a majority of flood-affected people did not get the promised financial assistance from the State Government. “Even officials at the ground level have realised that they won’t be held responsible for any lapses. Instead of taking up relief and rehabilitation measures seriously, the local administration was managing with rough estimates of damages, instead of ascertaining figures of actual losses,” he added.

Shabbir Ali asked the Chief Minister to justify the reason for his visit to Delhi at this juncture. “KCR is more interested in pursuing his political ambitions than showing any concern towards lakhs of people affected by rains and floods. If his visit to Delhi was urgent, he should’ve visited the national capital with a wish list for various ministries seeking relief for the damages. Strangely, KCR did not seek an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi or any other Union Minister to submit a memorandum regarding flood relief package,” he added.

The Congress leader also condemned the BJP Govt at the Centre for not announcing any relief package for Telangana. As against the estimated losses of over Rs 1400 crore, the State government has reportedly sought Rs 1,000 crore relief on immediate basis. An inter-ministerial Central team has already visited the flood-affected areas a few days ago. Therefore, the Centre should announce the relief package without delay, he demanded. (Maxim News)

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