The Congress on Monday lashed out at Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu for politicising the Uttarakhand floods to derive mileage.
A day after Mr. Naidu on his return from visit to US staged a dharna at A.P. Bhavan accusing the State Government of failure to provide relief to the evacuated pilgrims, PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana hit back at the TDP chief. “In this hour of tragedy, it was Mr. Naidu’s duty to cooperate in improving facilities for the evacuated pilgrims. Instead, he is blaming the government, which was the first to despatch a team of officials to Dehradun to coordinate relief work,” he said.
Mr. Satyanarayana wondered as to why the TDP president was creating a ruckus, when he did not bother to know about the situation in India but preferred to stay in the US for 10 days. “He has now realised that the TDP has lost sufficient ground as it failed to react to the crisis. To cover up this lapse, he is indulging in protest demonstrations,” he added.
The PCC chief backed Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, saying there was no delay on the part of the government in reacting to the situation. “It is a fact that hundreds of pilgrims, who had been stranded in Uttarakhand have been brought back safely to New Delhi and sent to their natives places at government cost. How can the TDP say no help was extended?” he asked. Labour Minister Danam Nagender, who was deputed to Dehradun by the Chief Minister to oversee relief operations, said but for the role of Special Officer Sanjay Kumar and A.P. Bhavan Resident Commissioner Shashank Goel, many pilgrims would have been left in the lurch. “The A.P. Bhavan officials and the special teams in Dehradun, Haridwar and Rishikesh worked round-the-clock to help the evacuated pilgrims,” he said.
