Telugu Desam MLA T. V. Rama Rao from Kovvuru (SC reserved) on Thursday created a commotion threatening to jump off the century-old Revenue Divisional Officer’s building at Kovvuru. The provocation for Mr. Rama Rao’s protest was the district administration’s alleged failure to ensure transparency in enumeration of crop losses in the flood-affected areas in his constituency.
Mr. Rama Rao’s protest kept the official machinery on tenterhooks for well over four hours.
He sneaked into the premises of the RDO office and went up the terrace of the building.
The MLA began his protest after the RDO came into his chambers at 10 a.m. and continued it till 2 p.m. When the police and the revenue personnel tried to bring him down by deploying fire engines and a ladder, Mr. Rama Rao warned them against approaching him. He relented only after the RDO conceded to his demands in consultation with district Collector G. Vanimohan.
Faulty
The MLA said the enumeration lists were faulty and lacked transparency. He accused the officials of understating the losses and making assessments without visiting the fields. The officials had promised to ensure transparency by displaying the lists at gram panchayat offices, inviting objections, if any, from the farmers. But they failed to do so, he alleged.
‘Forced to do it’
For over a week he had tried to draw the attention of the Collector and the Joint Collector to the seriousness of the situation by seeking an appointment but it did not materialise. “I was forced to hold out a threat of this sort as a last resort,” he told The Hindu . Over 80 per cent of the paddy cropwas damaged in his constituency, according to rough estimates.
