Nellore: Politicos, donors throw caution to wind

Nellore: Distribution of essentials by the ruling party and other leaders during lockdown has become a new headache for officials as they cannot stop support to the needy but at the same time are worried about community transmission of the virus since a huge number of people gather at a place and violate the social distance norm.

Of late, it has become a routine for politicos, NGOs, enthusiastic youngsters, employees associations, affluent people and many others to come forward to support the poor population who have been suffering from hunger due to lack of work and meagre support from the government.

Recently, Kovur MLA N Prasanna Kumar Reddy distributed essentials to the people of Buchidreddypalem and the local police booked cases against him. He staged a protest in front of the police station and finally senior officials intervened and resolved the dispute.

Subsequently, the district administration prohibited such activities in open and requested the donors to hand over the material to the local village or ward secretariats for taking up support activity in a systematic way.

Still, the activities are going on without any barriers in the district even violating the Sec 144 and the police personnel are keeping mum as the majority are from the ruling party."Leaders are garnering crowds at the venue for distribution of essentials. In case of community transmission, who will be held responsible? Huge crowds at venues makes us to wonder, whether Sec 144 is in force or not?" asks K Ranganatham from Balaji Nagar area.