Hyderabad: Former Minister and ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, along with TPCC Working President & MP A. Revanth Reddy, met the family members of Uzma Fatima, the Assistant Engineer of TS GENCO, who lost her life in the fire mishap at Srisailam Power Station on August 21.
Shabbir Ali and Revanth Reddy met Uzma Fatima’s father Mohammed Zubair at his residence in Azampura, Malakpet in the Old City on Sunday and expressed their deep condolences.
Speaking to media persons, Shabbir Ali said that the fire mishap at Srisailam Power Plant occurred due to the carelessness and mismanagement of the State Government. However, the staff, including Uzma Fatima, tried to extinguish the fire to save the public property worth hundreds of crores. He said all the employees had the opportunity to escape from the scene of the incident. However, they stayed back and tried to douse the fire which was evident from the videos going viral on social media. Similarly, he said Uzma Fatima saved four lives before falling victim to the fire.
Shabbir Ali, who had earlier served as Energy Minister, praised the efforts made by the power staff to control the fire. Just like the soldiers who fight with the enemy at borders to protect the country, the staff members confronted the fire with the intention of saving precious public property. Therefore, the State Government should treat all nine victims as martyrs and pay them compensation of Rs. 1 crore each. Further, he said their families should be given a plot of at least 500 sq yards each besides giving suitable government job to one member of their family. He said the victims, who lost their lives, could not be differentiated as per their rank or post in payment of compensation. He said all families have lost their loved ones and they must be paid Rs. 1 crore each as compensation.
The Congress leader said that Uzma Fatima was a brilliant and meritorious student and a brave girl. He said Uzma passed her engineering with distinction and got the job in the Energy Department under the 4% BC-E quota introduced by the previous Congress regime. He said it was unfortunate that despite repeated requests from Uzma Fatima for a suitable posting in Hyderabad, the State Government did not consider her request. He pointed out that Home Minister Mahmood Ali had admitted that Uzma had approached him for a suitable posting near her residence. However, the request was not considered despite the fact that she was too young and unmarried.
The Congress leaders then visited LB Nagar to meet the family of Deputy Engineer Bathini Srinivas Goud who also lost his life in the fire mishap.
Speaking to media persons after meeting the family, Revanth Reddy reiterated the demand for CBI enquiry into the incident which claimed nine lives. He alleged that the incident occurred due to utter negligence of the State Government. He said technicians had already warned the government about some glitches at the unit and also feared that they could lead to an accident at the power unit. However, he said that the authorities simply ignored those issues by not conducting any review. He blamed Power Minister Jagadish Reddy and TS GENCO Chairman and Managing Director D. Prabhakar Rao for the incident. He announced that he would raise the issue in Parliament seeking a CBI enquiry. He said criminal cases should be booked against all those responsible for the incident.
Revanth Reddy also condemned Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao for not visiting the site of the incident or hospital to meet the injured employees. He said that neither the Chief Minister, nor the Power Minister or TSGENCO CMD met any of the families of victims. He said this kind of behavior would demoralize all the employees in the State. He said that the CID enquiry ordered by the State Government was just an eyewash and it would not produce any results.