“Normalcy in areas affected by Hudhud has been restored to some extent. Unfortunately, the people of fort town are getting muddy drinking water due to quarrying of sand in an unscientific manner near drinking water schemes in the past,” said Union Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
After receiving cheques for Rs. 1 lakh from members of Kshatriya Parishad and Rs. 10,000 from Narayana Kamalavati Memorial Charitable Trust towards CM’s Relief Fund in the presence of Collector M.M. Naik on Friday, Mr. Ashok said people of the town would now blame the present government for the misdeeds of the past Congress leaders who had illegally removed sand from river beds. “And for this reason, people of the town are getting muddy drinking water.”
Unlike in the past, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted aerial survey and sanctioned relief to the cyclone-hit districts both in Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, he said. He appreciated officials for restoring operations at Visakhapatnam Airport within five days of the cyclone and cited work at New Orleans (USA) where it took five weeks to put the Airport back in operation after it was hit by hurricane.
On relief operations in Srinagar, Mr. Ashok said that media had exaggerated on incidents of pelting stones on helicopters by some miscreants. “The government pressed 70 helicopters, both Defence and civilian, into service for relief operations there. Some miscreants hurled stones on three helicopters, which made three sorties. But the media instead of presenting the fact in right perspective exaggerated it,” he said and suggested media to restrict reporting to facts.
