Uttam condemns TRS for inadequate relief to flood victims

Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President and MP Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy urged the people of Dubbaka to teach a fitting lesson to the ‘incompetent and arrogant’ TRS government in the upcoming by-election.

Uttam Kumar Reddy, along with former ministers, Damodar Reddy and G. Vinod and other senior leaders, participated in a door-to-door campaigning in Dubbaka town. He appealed to the people to realise the importance of their vote and said victory to the Congress would change the entire course of politics in Telangana State. He reminded people about the failed promises of the TRS and urged them to elect Congress candidate Ch. Srinivas Reddy.

Speaking to media persons later, Uttam Kumar said that the TRS party has no moral right to seek vote from the people as it has not fulfilled a single promise it has made. He alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has betrayed all sections of the society and except for the KCR family, no one benefited from the formation of Telangana. Since the TRS cannot get votes on the basis of its performance, the ruling party leaders are trying to lure voters with cash and liquor, he alleged.

Uttam Kumar strongly condemned the chief minister for not taking measures to handle the flood situation in the state, especially Hyderabad. He said that despite early warnings from the Met Department about heavy rains no steps were taken to protect lives and property. He said more than 100 people died in rain-related incidents so far. “However, instead of helping the families of those who were killed due to floods, the KCR government is hiding the true number of deaths,” he said.

Similarly, he said that instead of conducting proper enumeration of losses, the chief minister had come up with a vague figure of Rs 5,000 crore as losses from the flood without any proper data. He said that the losses would be more than Rs 50,000 crore if the state government conducted proper enumeration. He said that the state government was trying to wash its hand off by paying just Rs 10,000 as relief to the affected families.

"Almost all families in those submerged colonies have lost all their furniture, electronic items, clothes, certificates and other valuables. Who will pay for those damages?" he asked.

The TPCC chief also condemned the BJP government at the Centre for its slow response to the flood situation. "Hyderabad witnessed unprecedented floods on 13 October and the central government sent its team after more than a week. The situation has changed significantly in the last nine days. How can the central government assess the real damage that occurred a week later? Further, the Centre is visiting only a few selective areas and the media has been barred from covering its visit. This clearly shows that the TRS and the BJP government were hand-in-glove in suppressing the facts related to floods," he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy reiterated the demand that the central government declare Hyderabad floods as a national calamity and extend immediate relief. Further, he said Rs 5,000 crores must be sanctioned for flood relief works and ex-gratia of Rs 25 lakhs should be given to each person who has died because of the rain and floods. “For houses fully damaged in the floods, a compensation of Rs 5 lakh should be given by the state government and for partially damaged houses an amount of Rs 2 lakh should be paid. For houses inundated with floodwater, a compensatory amount of Rs 50,000 should be given,” he added.