Vijayawada, June 26, 2013: “The State government has utterly failed in rescuing people from the State stranded at Uttarakhand,” was the bottom line accusation of pilgrims who returned here on Tuesday.

The pilgrims, mincing no words, said that the government’s indifferent attitude came to fore in Uttarakhand. All other governments have responded and launched rescue operations except Andhra Pradesh.

The pilgrims from other States could sail through easily as their governments arranged transportation and food. There were no officials from our State, and relief operations were poor. Wonder what the government was doing, they said.

The pilgrims said the language was the biggest barrier. “Most of us didn’t know Hindi. The State government could have organised flights to bring back us. Hardly there were any transportation facilities. With a great difficulty reached AP Bhavan in New Delhi. Worst part is, the AP Bhavan officials treated us like beggars,” they said as the tears rolled down their cheeks.

The Telugu Desam Party Vijayawada Parliamentary Constituency incharge Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) arranged transportation facilities from Hyderabad to Vijayawada for 40 pilgrims from Krishna, Guntur and West Godavari districts who arrived in a special flight arranged by TDP from Delhi to Hyderabad.

Mylavaram MLA and TDP district president Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said the Congress governments, both in the State and at the Centre, had failed to build confidence in the pilgrims when they were in a state of trauma. Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was behaving like Nero who played the fiddle while Rome was burning. Mr Reddy was busy releasing balloons at a programme, when the pilgrims were anxiously waiting for a helping hand, he said. The whereabouts of many people were still not known. The government should take a cue from TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu and help the pilgrims from the State, he said.

TDP urban president K. Nagul Meera, TDP Vijayawada (Central) incharge Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, and former MLC Y.V.B. Rajendraprasad were among those present.

Source: The Hindu, DT. June 26, 2013.