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Telangana guv slams Stalin govt over ‘mismanagement’ of flood situation
Tamil Nadu’s four southern districts of Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari saw extreme rainfall on December 17 and 18
CHENNAI: After visiting flood-hit Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday criticised the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for mismanaging the situation, prompting the ruling party to rebuke the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president for behaving like a politician while holding a constitutional post.
Soundararajan criticised chief minister MK Stalin for attending the INDIA bloc’s meeting on December 19 in New Delhi. The four southern districts of Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari saw extreme rainfall on December 17 and 18, which was the region’s wettest spell since 1871, Stalin had said. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appraise him of the situation and returned the next day to inspect the flood-hit districts.
“The chief minister has become a one-hour chief minister. I asked many people. They informed me that he was here (to assess the impact of floods) for just one hour,” said Soundararajan. “This is wrong. They should have done more to protect people.” The death toll in the four districts was 31, according to the Union government.
“On the day of the floods, he was in Coimbatore. The next day also he did not come here. If the state had done its duty, why would I come here? The state government failed in preparing for the rains,” the Telangana governor said.
Governors appointed by the BJP have been behaving like spokespersons of the party and its ideological parent, the RSS, according to DMK spokesperson Salem Dharanidharan. “Her statements are unconstitutional and unbecoming of a governor,” Dharanidharan said. “As governor of another state, she has no locus standi to comment on this issue”.
