On the day when APCC president Raghuvira Reddy successfully launched a novel protest of filing thousands of cases against CM Chandrababu Naidu for allegedly cheating people with false assurances, TDP government said it’s going to initiate probe into cloud-seeding operation conducted during YSR regime.
The cloud-seeding experiment was conducted to get rains with the help of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological university and seeding operation was outsourced to a Bengaluru based company.
No doubt, many officials , who were heading concerned departments, had clearly spoke of the futility of the program in getting rains. Public money was spent, irrespective of the opposition from within the government. About Rs 120 crore or more had been spent on the program which yielded nothing but unconfirmed data. The data of rainfall in the cloud-seeding area was of doubtful nature as the state had no wherewithal to test the data. It definitely needs a thorough probe, not for political gains, but to prevent the recurrence of such dubious experiments with tax-payers’ money in future.
But, TDP talking about inquiry into the five year old cloud seeding on the day the Raghuvira Reddy filed cases against PM Modi, CM Naidu and union Venkaiah Naidu reeked of bad politics and witch hunt. It clearly shows the shock waves Raghuvira creating by his street-smart politics for the past 15 months. Why has the TDP been silent for the past 15 months if it genuinely wants to bring the people responsible for wasting public money on cloud-seeding? Did anybody stop the TDP government in instituting a high level probe? Being a ruling, the TDP could have done anything it wanted?
But, now, only after agitation, which is reviving the party, has the TDP thought of probe into cloud seeding.
The announcement is made by agriculture Minister Prattipati Pullarao. “The chief minister will take a decision on entrusting the probe to the CID or the ACB,” he said.”In fact, in January itself, the government had taken a decision to order a probe into the cloud seeding experiment, done at a cost of Rs 120 crore and a cabinet subcommittee studied the project. But for some reasons no decision was taken on ordering the probe,” Pullarao said. Rao was critical of filing cheating cases against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Naidu, and union minister Venkaiah Naidu. He said the 2014 verdict should have taught Congress a lesson. But it seems not”,he said adding:“The probe will decide who should go to jail.”
The message is clear-witch hunt.
The TDP, which has got a clear mandate, should concentrate on implementing the promises it made to people in its poll manifesto ignoring these opposition politics. Thinking too much of the every murmur of protest and getting jittery is the sign of something wrong in system
