The issue of Uttarakhand flood victims dominated the marathon speech of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrabu Naidu at the party’s regional meet held here.
Mr. Naidu, on Thursday, explained at length, about the woes of Andhra pilgrims in Uttarakhand and the Telugu Desam’s efforts to rescue them. “The Telugu Desam did what the State government could not do. The government reacted only after the TDP party airlifted the victims from Uttarakhand,” he said.
While all the other chief ministers arranged helicopters and launched rescue and relief operations, our Chief Minister was indifferent to the flood victims. The government would have reacted if it had humanity. Every pilgrim complained that the Telugus were ill-treated and not cared. The worst part is the fact that officials at AP Bhavan drove away the doctors pressed into service. They did not allow the TDP to conduct the medical camp. The doctors were forced to treat the Andhra pilgrims on the road outside the AP Bhavan, he said.
“With humility, I apologized for the uncalled for altercation between TDP and Congress leaders at Uttarakhand,” he said, adding, “The Congress leaders, however, were not ashamed of the unwarranted development. Instead, they were more concerned about their vested interests.”
Vividly quoting the names of flood victims, Mr. Naidu said they came out of jaws of death. Talk to any family, they have a pathetic story to tell. Telugu Desam organised the regional meet of Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and West Godavari districts here. Krishna district president Devineni Umamaheswara Rao presided over the meeting. Guntur, Prakasam, West Godavari districts presidents P. Pulla Rao, Karanam Balaram, Sitamahalakshmi respectively, senior leaders Nannapaneni Rajakumari, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, Lal Jan Basha, TDP MLAs from four districts were present.