Congress leaders condemn attack on forest officer

HYDERABAD: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Sunday condemned the attack on woman forest range officer Ch Anita while she was discharging her duties to raise compensatory forest in podu land in Kotha Sarsala village in Komram Bheem district in lieu of the land that was taken for Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.

In a statement here, he said that in Telangana, a barbaric rule was in force where no one had any respect for law. The fact that ruling party MLA Koneru Konappa’s brother Krishna had the temerity to attack forest officials and cause head injury to range officer bore this fact out eloquently, he said.
Krishna, who is vice-chairman of Zilla Parishad, along with his supporters disrupted the forest department’s programme, using his muscle power. 

“In the state, we have perpetuation of family rule and growing lawlessness and intolerance even against government officials,” he said.

Call for stringent action 

Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that stringent action should be taken against the culprit. “The incident bears out the fact that law and order has taken a knock in the State. I wonder whether the chief minister is aware of what is happening.”

Meanwhile, Congress MLC T Jeevan Reddy, while condemning the attack on woman officer, however, wanted the government to go to the rescue of the tribals. 

The government has issued orders for eviction of tribals from the podu lands. He said it was surprising that after asking the forest department to raise plants in podu lands, it was encouraging MLAs’ henchmen to attack the officials who were only following government orders. The genesis for the problem lay in lopsided policy of the state government, he said.