Ponguleti decries poor police security at Rahul's meeting

KHAMMAM: A day after joining the Congress, former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy on Monday alleged that the state government had failed to provide sufficient security to Rahul Gandhi during his meeting here on Sunday.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Reddy said he was always among people even when he was not in power to resolve their problems. He said people gave him a return gift for his services as evidenced by the huge turnout at the meeting.

He said that people could feel the difference between the enthusiasm at Rahul Gandhi’s meeting and the Avirbhava sabha of BRS, both held here. He said alert party activists averted possible unfortunate incidents when a large number of over-enthusiastic youth barged into the D circle in front of the dais by jumping over the barricade. The Congress activists and leaders controlled the situation in a deft manner. Deployment of police was abysmal, he said and wondered who would have been held responsible if any untoward incident had taken place during Rahul Gandhi’s meeting.

He criticised the state government for creating various kinds of troubles for the meeting and restricting the movements of people coming to the meeting from villages and towns. He said the officials had also made an issue of the temporary iron bridge they had placed on the canal to make way to the meeting ground. The authorities asked them to remove the temporary bridge a day after it was placed with permission, he scoffed.

Reddy alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was cheating tribals in the name of giving podu pattas. He said there was no match between the podu pattas that are being given and the applications that were received. He said that it seems like the time has come for all the BRS leaders to check their eyes at the ‘Kanti Velugu’ programme that is underway in the state since they are seeing everything through ‘coloured glasses’.

He asked the BRS leaders to stay away from Congress’s internal matters and advised them to rather set their house in order. He asserted that there were no differences among the Congress leaders.