Naidu lambasts govt for leaving cyclone victims to their fate

Vijayawada: TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday accused the state government of miserably failing in providing shelter, food and water to the cyclone victims. “The government is not prepared to prevent the damage caused by the cyclone and did not even extend any kind of assistance to the flood-hit,” he said in a press note here.

He said when he spoke to some of the Michaung cyclone victims over phone to enquire about the assistance being extended to them, all the villagers said that even food is not being supplied to them and that there was absolutely no response from the government.

The former CM also had a teleconference with over 12,000 party leaders and activists across the state on the impact of the cyclone and enquired about the prevailing condition in their respective areas.

The TDP national president directed the party leaders and cadres to extend all possible assistance to the cyclone victims, including supply of food and water, without waiting for any help from the government side. “The TDP, be it in power or in Opposition, always stands by the people and at this crucial juncture we all should extend help to the affected,” Chandrababu told the party leaders and the activists.

Except making tall claims, the state government did nothing for the flood-hit, he said, adding that the ground reality reflects this beyond doubt. Despite knowing pretty well in advance the heavy damage to be caused by this cyclone, the State Government has miserably failed in alerting the people, he said.

This crisis arose as all the systems got demoralised, the former chief minister felt. When HudHud and Titli cyclones hit the state and during the disasters, the then TDP government brought in separate GOs to extend all possible assistance to the farmers, he recalled.

He also narrated how this YSRCP government has ‘deliberately’ narrowed down the help to the cyclone victims. Chandrababu felt that as the prices of all commodities were skyrocketing when compared during the TDP rule, the ex gratia, in fact should be increased than what the then TDP government had paid and called upon his party leaders and activists to mount pressure on the government to get more financial help to the cyclone victims.