The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu has held Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and his government responsible for the destruction that followed the recent floods in five districts of the state.
He demanded that a thorough inquiry be conducted into the administrative lapses that caused the massive devastation after the unprecedented floods.
Addressing a press conference at the TDP headquarters here today after a six-day tour of the flood-hit areas, Mr. Naidu pointed out that the government failed to act on the warnings issued by the Central Water Commission on the heavy flood discharge into the Krishna river; a result of which Mahbubnagar and Kurnool districts suffered heavy damage while Nalgonda, Guntur and Krishna too bore the brunt.
Mr. Naidu wondered what the irrigation minister and engineers were doing when flood water gushed into Srisailam. Why did they not empty the Srisailam reservoir and release water into downstream Nagarjuna Sagar which was about 45 per cent empty, he questioned.
The Kurnool district Collector Mukesh Kumar Meena kept the local CWC engineer waiting for over 90 minutes when the latter had gone to brief him about the flood threat. Even subsequently, the Collector failed to take the required steps to mitigate the devastation, Mr. Naidu said.
