The State government transferred Narasaraopeta municipal commissioner B. Siva Reddy to Kavali as coronavirus cases continued to play havoc on the town in Guntur district. In his place Kavali civic chief K. Venkateswara Rao was posted. Six new positive cases were reported taking the total number of cases to 121 in Narasaraopet.
There were allegations that Mr Siva Reddy allowed some local leaders to distribute ration, vegetables and milk at the doorstep of people along with ward volunteers in Varavakatta which is a red zone in the town. Some of the leaders later tested positive for coronavirus. It was believed that the utter negligence of higher officials, including the commissioner, turned Varavakatta into Corona hell and the virus later spread to other areas.
Recently, Guntur collector I. Samuel Anand Kumar and other officials conducted a review meeting and came to know that Mr Siva Reddy had stayed in the guest house instead of renting a house in the town to better monitor the situation. He was later asked to hand over the guest house to special officers deputed to check the spread of the infection in the town.
Meanwhile, deputy DMHO Dr Rohini said that 12 teams were deputed to Varavakatta out of 22 appointed in red zone areas to conducted door-to-door survey in Narasa-raopet. She said four members in each team were deployed to identify old-age people, pregnant women and chronic patients in these areas for Covid-19 screening.
