Hyderabad, October 12: CPI deputy general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy and State secretary K Narayana have urged the State Government to order a high-level inquiry into the accusation that State irrigation officials had ingnored the Central Water Commission’s (CWC) warnings of possible floods, and initiate stringent action against erring officials.
Addressing a news conference here today, the CPI leaders said their party too beleived that the failure of the irrigation department officials was the main reason for the floods which could have been prvented had they acted in time.
They also demanded that Chief Minister K Rosaiah convene an all party meeting to discuss the measuers to be taken for mitigating the victims’ sufferings and also to learn whether the lapses of the irrigation officials led to flooding.
The government should explain to the people why the officials did not empty the Srisailam reservoir despite knowing that a deluge was on its way. “A few days before the floods ravaged the state, Irrigation Minister Ponnala Laxmaiah had opened the Srisilam project gates and but within a few hours they were closed. The inquiry should cover this action too, ‘’ Sudhakar Reddy said. The CPI leaders felt that the flood devastation had resulted in a loss of Rs 25,000 to 30,000 crore and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s two-day visit to the State served no purpose. “It was just an eyewash,’’ he said.
They demanded that the Centre provide Rs 6,000-crore financial assistance to the State from the National Calamity Contingency Fund because the prime minister himself had described the flood damage as national calamity.
Narayana wrote a latter to the prime minister on the flood damage and sought liberal financial assistance to the State Government.
–Agencies–