Chief Minister Oomen Chandy on Friday defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Puttingal Devi temple at Kollam soon after DGP TP Senkumar objected to visits of national leaders at accident sites. The DGP claimed he had raised a red flag against the visits of Modi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on the day when the fore tragedy took place in Kollam.
"The PM's visit to the spot was a great relief for the people. National leaders visited and their presence and advice and help was a great thing for Kerala. All rescue operations were over in the morning. We all concentrated on treatment of the injured after 6 am," he said.
The DGP had asserted that he was against the visits as they would have adversely affected the rescue and relief work. He also said that during the VVIP visits, the police needs to be diverted for security.
Also read: Had Objected to Modi, Rahul's Visit to Kollam Temple: Kerala Top Cop
While Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala agreed that such visits put pressure on security forces, he claimed that it did not affect the relief work in Kollam. "The VVIP visit does put the pressure on the state police but it did not affect the relief work. We cleared everything with 2 hours. The PM was carrying a medical team with him," he said.
"This is a non issue. There is no harm in national leaders coming to the site. It helps the residents get maximum assistance. There was no delay in relief or rescue work due to the convoys of PM and Rahul Gandhi," he added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, defended the PM's visit. "PM got the information of Kollam tragedy early in the morning but he waited for rescue operation to get over and reached at spot at 5 PM in evening," Union Minister Rajeev Pratap Reddy said.
However, JDU leader KC Tyagi agreed with the DGP. "VVIP'S should avoid visits to places where there has been a tragedy as it hampers movement or relief work in that area," he said.
Modi had visited the temple complex and met some of the injured in Medical College Hospital on the day of mishap. Shortly after he arrived in Kerala with 15 burn specialists, Modi also visited the Puttingal Devi Temple premises at Paravur in Kollam district to take stock of the situation. CM Chandy and state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala took the PM around the temple precincts and briefed him on the incident.
The Prime Minister, who spent around 10 minutes at the spot, also saw the concrete bars, twisted wires and cables.
At least 110 people were killed and over 380 were injured after a huge stock of firecrackers went up in flames in Puttingal Devi Temple premises early on Sunday morning.
Comments
0 comment