CID Arrests Two As Flood Blame Game Intensifies Between TDP And YSRCP

Vijayawada: Ruling Telugu Desam Party and its arch-rival YSR Congress Party are engaged in a political slugfest with trading of charges over Vijyawada floods and the damage caused to the Prakasam Barrage.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has already nabbed two persons after registering a case into the damage caused to the 170-year old barrage at a time when it received over 11 lakh cusets of rainwater triggered by a low pressure in the Bay of Bengal. YSRCP leaders squarely blamed TDP and its allies for mismanagement leading to the death of over 60 persons and forcing over two lakh people in Vijayawada to either flee or take shelter in rooftops. They also termed the allegation on their involvement in barrage damage as a diversionary tactic to divert public attention.

Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha suspected the involvement of YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the boat collusion at Prakasam Barrage as an attempt to tarnish the image of the TDP-led NDA government. She said the CID is probing into the sabotage angle claiming it as a ‘man-made incident.’

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu also blamed YSRCP for the encroachments of Budameru catchment area and breaking of the two of the counterweights of Prakasam Barrage following collision by three boats each weighing at least 30 tonnes leading to damage to two of the counterweights.

The TDP leaders say that the boats found abandoned at the barrage by tying each other with a nylon rope was a deep-rooted conspiracy and the two persons detained by CID were believed to members of former YSRCP MP Nandigam Suresh and MLC Talasila Raghuram.

Meanwhile, former Irrigation Minister Ambati Rambabu came down heavily on Chief Minister Naidu for engaging in diversionary politics by blaming the YSRCP for the boat mishap at the Prakasam Barrage and said it is a deliberate conspiracy to deflect attention from the government’s failure to handle the flood crisis.

He told the media that CM Naidu’s actions were buttressing their claim on stooping to a new low by making such allegations. Rambabu pointed out that not only private boats but also tourism boats had been caught in the floodwaters. He criticised Naidu for using every crisis, including the recent floods in the Budameru and Krishna rivers, to target YSRCP leaders. He stated that during the floods, the water flow reached an unusually high level of 11.43 lakh cusecs, a level not seen in a long time. He added that the floods caused several boats, including tourism boats, to be damaged.

Quoting government reports, he pointed out that 202 boats were partially damaged, and 432 were completely destroyed in the floods and found it ridiculous that the three large boats that hit the gates at the Prakasam Barrage were used to spread rumours of a conspiracy against the YSRCP.

YSRCP spokesperson Pothina Mahesh said that the TDP coalition government under the leadership of Chief Minister Naidu is spreading false narratives by claiming that the boats which hit the Prakasam Barrage gates during the floods belong to YSRCP supporters, in a deliberate effort to divert attention from their own failures in managing the flood situation.