Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has taken a serious view of the incident in Kotha Sarasala village in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district on Sunday where TRS MLA Koneru Konappa’s brother and former V-C of the Zilla Parishad, Koneru Krishna Rao, and his followers, attacked forest officers who were clearing land to plant trees for the Haritha Haram programme.
Two police officers, Kagaznagar DSP Sambaiah and rural Circle Inspector Venkateswarlu, have been suspended for not taking action when the forest officials were attacked. Chief Minister Rao has told police officers not to spare anyone who was involved in the violence.
He also reportedly expresses anger on clarify whether he spoke to Koneru himself or what TRS MLA Koneru Konappa. The matter reached Parliament when Union environmental minister Prakash Javadekar made a reference to it. He said his government has taken the incident very seriously and will not tolerate such incidents. Environmental protection is the government’s responsibility, he said, and added that action will be taken according to the law. The Telangana Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has appointed a fact-finding committee of four MLAs to go into the facts of the incident. The MLAs are D Sridhar Babu, Podem Veeraiah, Dasari Anasuya and T. Jayaprakash Reddy. The panel will give its report in a week’s time.
