Jagadish Reddy fumes at police
Energy minister G Jagadish Reddy on Saturday expressed severe anger at the police department for preventing power staff from attending to emergency duties and beating them up in the name of lockdown restrictions, though the power department comes under emergency services and power staff are exempt from the lockdown.
Jagadish Reddy, who was touring Suryapet district, called DGP P. Mahendar Reddy over phone and complained against "police excesses" in Nalgonda, Hyderabad and elsewhere.
He asked the DGP to identify the policemen who “attacked” power staff and initiate stringent action against them. He asked the DGP to ensure that such instances do not repeat in future.
The power staff went on flash strike in Nalgonda and stopped power supply for two hours against the alleged police high-handedness. They restored power supply only after the minister assured them of action against errant policemen.
Power staff in Hyderabad and Nalgonda brought to the notice of the minister that they were being beaten up by police on the roads when they were going to attend emergency duties to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
They complained that police attacked them and seized their vehicles though they showed them their ID cards, arguing that they were asked to enforce lockdown strictly by their ‘higher-ups’ as per the directions of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to enforce lockdown more strictly from Saturday.
Jagadish Reddy also took up the issue with Nalgonda SP G. Ranganath and ordered him to initiate action against the police personnel who beat up power staff. The minister asked him to ensure that power staff would be alloed to attend duties without any trouble.
D. Prabhakar Rao, TS Transco and Genco Chairman and Managing Director, also took strong exception to the police beating up power staff.
He said power staff were working day and night to ensure 24x7 power supply to hospitals and consumers in these difficult Covid times by risking their own lives. He said hundreds of power staff have been infected with the Coronavirus so far.
Prabhakar Rao urged the police department not to attack power staff and seize their vehicles and allow them to attend emergency duties after verifying their identity cards.