BHAINSA (NIRMAL): Union minister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy on Sunday said that Bhainsa town would not have witnessed huge damage to property had police reacted promptly and expressed regret that victims of the communal violence had not received any help from the government so far.
Promising that efforts were being made to restore peace, the Union minister said, if needed, the Central government would order an inquiry into the communal clashes that took place in Bhainsa. He was speaking to media after visiting affected houses and interacting with victims of both communities in Korbagalli. He reviewed the situation with Musharaff Ali Farooqui, district collector, and Shash-idhar Raju, superintendent of police, Nirmal.
He said that police should have taken preventive steps as Bhainsa was a communally sensitive town and polls were slated to be held when violence occurred. As a result of inaction from the police, innocent poor and middle-class people belonging to both communities lost their properties.
Union minister of state for home G. Kishan Reddy said that that he, and other BJP leaders, did not visit Bhainsa immediately after the clashes to avoid the situation from getting vitiated. Mr Reddy said that the state government must provide full protection to people living in fear.
He asked district officials to immediately issue documents listing the details of property lost by the victims following the destruction.
“Local people have told me that communal clashes were pre-planned because of municipal elections,” Kishan Reddy said, and assured that “those who had hatched the conspiracy to incite clashes would be punished”.
He further disclosed that the Nirmal police had sent proposals for compensation of Rs 2.33 crore to 101 victims in the Bhainsa incident to the government.
BJP state president K. Laxman, BJP MPs Soyam Bapurao (Adilabad), Bandi Sanjay (Karimnagar) and Dharmapuri Aravind (Nizamabad), Rammohan Rao (Rajya Sabha), and other party leaders including Ramadevi, Payal Shankar and Suhasini Reddy and others were present.
