Hyderabad, June 27 (Hydnow): Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s inefficiency and inability were responsible for the present situation. He also announced the schedule for a series of agitation programmes to be held in the next one week on various issues.
He was addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday along with TPCC Working Presidents Ponnam Prabhakar and Kusum Kumar, Vice-President Dr. Mallu Ravi, AICC Spokesperson Dr. Dasoju Sravan and other leaders.
Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that KCR Govt has completely failed to handle the Coronavirus situation. He said that the first Coronavirus case was reported in Telangana about three months ago and experts had issued multiple warnings predicting a huge rise in the number of cases. However, he said even after three months, KCR Govt took no measures to handle the situation in an effective manner. Situation is so worse, that there are no beds in the hospitals to treat the Covid-19 patients. He said that the guidelines to trace, test and treat Covid-19 patients were not followed and KCR’s negligent and casual approach led to huge spread of the disease with no medical infrastructure in place to treat the affected persons.
The TPCC Chief said there was only one Covid-19 hospital (Gandhi Hospital) for nearly 4 crore population of Telangana. He said that the lockdown period was not utilised properly to upgrade the infrastructure. Consequently, today the authorities are unable to attend to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the State. He said that the Congress party has been raising the issue of less number of Covid-19 tests in Telangana. He said a representation was also made with the Governor on the issue. Even the High Court has given several suggestions to increase the testing rate. However, the KCR Govt is not willing to listen to the opposition parties, the Governor or even the High Court. He said that the government has failed to provide Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits even to the doctors who are treating Covid-19 patients. Consequently, several doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff got infected with the deadly virus. Similarly, several police personnel, sanitation workers and journalists got infected with Covid-19. He said these cases clearly expose the failure and proves inefficiency of TRS Govt.
Uttam Kumar Reddy reiterated the demand that all frontline warriors against Coronavirus including doctors, para-medical staff, policemen, sanitation workers and also journalists be paid an ex-gratia of Rs. 50 lakh if they die of Covid-19. He said that the Central Government has already made an announcement that doctors and paramedics would be given ex-gratia of Rs. 50 lakh. However, this decision is not being implemented by the TRS Govt. He also demanded Rs. 10 lakh ex-gratia for the poor people who died due to Covid-19.
The TPCC Chief said that TPCC Task Force Committee on Covid-19, headed by Marri Shashidhar Reddy, would make a representation with the Central Team, which is visiting Hyderabad, to expose the negligence of State Government in managing Containment Zones. He announced that the Congress leaders would address press meets on June 30 at all Assembly headquarters to expose the failures of TRS Govt in handling Covid-19 situation.
Uttam Kumar Reddy also slammed the TRS Government for inflated electricity bills given to consumers this month. He demanded that the electricity bills for the lockdown period of two months should be waived off, especially for the BPL families. He also demanded that the power companies should adopt telescopic methodology to generate electricity bills by scraping away the non-telescopic method which will benefit the consumers. He said that the Congress party would organise protests against inflated electricity bills with black badges and flags in all Mandal & Assembly headquarters on July 3.
The TPCC also announced that protest would be held on June 29 against the hike in petrol and diesel prices in all Rural District Headquarters and memorandums will be submitted to the District Collectors. Similarly, protest will be held in Urban areas and mandal headquarters on July 4.
Reddy said that the Congress party would organise birth centenary celebrations of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao from June 28. The celebrations will go on for a year by way of organising different programmes. He reminded that the then Congress Govt in undivided Andhra Pradesh had passed a resolution in the Assembly demanding Bharat Ratna for PV Narasimha Rao. He said Asia’s longest flyover in Hyderabad was also named after PVNR. He said that the party would welcome centenary celebrations by anyone, including the State Govt. (Hydnow)