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KCR suspects ‘foreign hand’ in Telangana flood, Opposition hits out
“These forces had engineered cloudbursts in Leh-Ladakh areas of Kashmir and then in Uttarakhand. Our people are also saying they might have done in Godavari region,” Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao said.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday said he suspected the involvement of a “foreign conspiracy” behind the heavy rain in the catchment areas of Godavari river that resulted in unprecedented flooding.
Speaking on Sunday at a meeting in Bhadrachalam town after inspecting the flood-affected areas, KCR, as the chief minister is popularly called, said the heavy rains were the result of a new phenomenon called cloudbursts.
“I don’t know how far it is true, but there are reports that these cloudbursts were part of the conspiracy by some foreign forces to destabilise the country. These forces had engineered cloudbursts in Leh-Ladakh areas of Kashmir and then in Uttarakhand. Our people are also saying they might have done in Godavari region,” he said.
In the same breath, the chief minister said these cloudbursts were happening due to climatic changes, resulting in heavy floods to the rivers and streams.
Referring to the unprecedented flooding that posed a threat to Kadem reservoir in Nirmal district, KCR said it was a miracle that the dam had survived. “It was built to withstand an inflow of 2.9 lakh cusecs. But for the first time in the history, there was a flood of five lakh cusecs. The dam was looking like a thin bridge due to such a heavy flood. Thankfully, the project is still standing as the flood has receded,” he said.
He lauded the efforts of officials and the public representatives for taking steps to ensure their was no loss of lives because of the floods.
The chief minister announced allocation of ₹1,000 crore to take up work to fortify Bhadrachalam town from any future flooding in the Godavari on a permanent basis.
He had also announced financial assistance of ₹10,000 and 20 kg rice for the flood-affected families in town.
While the CM was originally scheduled to undertake an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas, the plan was changed due to inclement weather and he travelled to the temple town by road.
Later, the chief minister conducted an aerial survey along the Godavari river in Etur Nagaram area and interacted with the people in the flood-hit area of Ramannagudem.
At a meeting with the district officials later, KCR said that pipelines under Mission Bhagiratha that supply drinking water to villages had suffered damage at several points. He announced the allocation of ₹2.50 crore to Mulug, ₹2.30 crore to Bhadrachalam, ₹2 crore to Jayashankar Bhupalpalli and ₹1.50 crore to Mulugu districts towards immediate flood relief works.
Noted environmentalist, K Purushottam Reddy, said KCR’s comments were meaningless. “Telangana is a land-locked state and how can any foreign force enter the airspace and engineer a cloudburst. The heavy rains and floods in Godavari river are due to climate change caused by the large-scale destruction of forests for the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project,” he said.
KCR’s comments also prompted opposition leaders to hit out.
State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, Bandi Sanjay, lashed out saying the CM was in fact the only conspirator. “He seems to have gone mad. In fact, there is no bigger conspirator than KCR. He is only trying to cover up his government’s failure in protecting the Kaleshwaram project on Godavari river,” he said.
Senior Congress MP and former state president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said: “How can there be a conspiracy in natural phenomena? It is unbecoming on the part of a chief minister to make such silly statements.”
Meanwhile, governor Tamilisai Soundararajan also made a whirlwind tour of the flood-affected areas in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district on Sunday.
The governor visited the shelter camps at Ashwapuram mandal in the district and interacted with the flood-affected people sheltered in relief camps.
Soundararajan also distributed health kits, medicines, and tarpaulins to the flood victims mobilised by the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) and the Lions Club.
Relief teams from the IRCS and the medical teams from the ESIC Medical College accompanied the Governor.
