YSR Congress party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who toured parts of Pithapuram in Kakinada district on Friday to interact with the people affected by Yeleru floods, as usual accused the Chandrababu Naidu government of mismanaging the flood situation in the state and completely failing in providing flood relief.
Jagan said Naidu, despite being the chief minister for several years, had absolutely no knowledge of flood management. He said the chief minister failed to take preventive measures despite early cyclone warnings.
“No review meetings were held and special officers were not appointed to manage the crisis in the affected districts. He has miserably failed to assess the floods to Yeleru river that led to inundation of several villages,” he said.
While attacking Naidu, the YSRCP chief gave a benefit of doubt for deputy chief minister and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan.
“He is a film actor and has come newly into electoral politics. He doesn’t know anything,” he said.
Jagan, however, lashed out at Naidu stating that all that he had done during the floods was to pose to the photographs and enact dramas.
“If Pawan Kalyan is a cinema artiste, Naidu is a big drama artiste,” he said.
He raised concerns over the poor management of the Yeleru reservoir, which has a capacity of nearly 23 TMC. He questioned why, despite receiving an inflow of 9,950 cusecs on September 1, the government failed to take appropriate action.
“Excess water should have been released earlier, as the downstream canal can handle up to 14,000 cusecs,” he said.
Jagan reiterated that these were man-made floods caused by the mishandling of the reservoir under Naidu’s government.
He held the previous administration responsible for not releasing water in time, which ultimately led to the disaster, stating that it was a preventable crisis that occurred solely due to negligence.
