Minister justifies drone video shoot on Chandrababu Naidu’s residence

VIJAYAWADA: In a counter reaction to former CM N. Chandrababu Naidu’s allegations that security at his residence was breached at Undavalli with drone cameras capturing images of his residence, minister for water resources Anil Kumar justified the act by saying that it was at the direction of the state government that drones were being used to video record the flood affected areas to assess the extent of damage and to come up with plans to provide relief.

The minister said here on Friday that the state government was trying to provide protection to the residence of former CM as the flood waters were beginning to touch it.

He added that as they had expected earlier, the ex-CM’s residence was getting affected as it was located on the river bed in violation of all norms. He said that they had ordered video recording of areas located on either side of Bhavani island to assess the flood situation and added that as the ex-CM’s residence was located along the flood bank of Krishna river, it was also covered by the drone along with other structures.

Explaining about the management of Krishna river flood situation in the state, the minister stated that as huge quantum of water was reaching the irrigation projects all the way from Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichinthala and finally to Prakasam barrage, they had allowed some water to be stored in the reservoir at Prakasam barrage and as the inflows were rising, they started discharging water slowly downstream and claimed that by doing so, they avoided any major inundation of low-lying areas that would have affected a large number of people.

He said that the officials were given instructions to act in an appropriate manner after deliberating on management of flood situation at a higher level.

In an oblique reference to Telugu Desam leaders, the minister said that some people were unable to digest the fact that the state was experiencing a good time in the reign of the YSRC government and were making baseless allegations on flood management in the state.

Later, the minister with regard to execution of Polavaram irrigation project said that they were going to start the exercise of calling the bids through reverse tendering from August 17 and added that the exercise would be completed by September 15. He sounded confident that works could be resumed from November 1 onwards.