Nalgonda MLA Kancharla Bhupal Reddy along with town officials violated social distancing norms at an event they were part of, to distribute ‘safety kit’ to workers of Sanitation and Water departments here on Tuesday.
The event was organised by Lions Club International at N.G. College grounds and witnessed a congregation of at least 100 people. According to an invite to media, the meeting was to distribute breakfast, protective equipment such as gloves, masks, disinfectant soaps, all worth ₹ 1 lakh, to about 800 workers on the hands of Mr. Bhupal Reddy.
Along with Nalgonda Municipal Commissioner B. Dev Singh and municipality chairman M. Saidi Reddy and others, Mr. Bhupal Reddy first arrived at the premises to inaugurate a disinfection tunnel at the ground’s entrance, spoke to the gathering from a small tent and gave away the packages. The N.G. College grounds, at a stone’s throw from the District Police Office and Superintendent of Police’s bungalow, soon saw the workers rushing for their packages disrupting all safety and social distance.
According to Nethi Raghupathi, State Secretary Lions Club, the gathering was not more than 50 people and that’s why the police too assured them that a prior permission was not required. “The idea was to distribute the whole stock to 16 jawans, who in turn would hand them over to the area workers, a total of 800 in the municipality. Along with the MLA and his men, Commissioner, Chairman, DSP, a few of our members were also present,” he said.
In Miryalaguda, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy was the chief violator of social distance and lockdown norms. Nearly 500 people, including 350 sanitation workers, were part of the gathering in his address at the mini Ravindra Bharati grounds, clearly in violation of the large numbers and distance between persons.
According to party workers, the meeting was to felicitate the sanitation workers for their role in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and it was also coinciding with the World Health Day on Tuesday.
A photograph of the event that went viral later in the evening showed Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy posing along with his party men and women and the hundreds of workers in blue T-shirts behind him. In both the events, there were no ‘social distance boxes or circles’ for attendees, however, most of them were seen wearing a mask.
Miryalaguda town II and Nalgonda town II police, under whose jurisdictional limits the events were held, also said they were unaware of the event.
