Dehradun Men Landed At Hyd After Rescue By AP Netas

By Swati Reddy / Dehradun

In a bid to increase the number of people rescued by them from Flood-hit Uttarakhand, politicians from Andhra Pradesh ended up taking several residents of Dehradun to Hyderabad with them. A group of 50 Dehradun residents are currently stranded in Hyderabad after being taken away by these politicians who had gone to Uttarakhand for rescue works.
This news comes right on the heels of the news of a fist fight between Congress and Telugu Desam Party’s politicians over providing assistance to pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh stranded in Uttarakhand. The wrestling match between them ended in a tie so they are now trying to beat each other in the number of people rescued by them.

Speaking to INN, one of the stranded people, Atul Bhandari said, “Sir, I work at the Dehradun airport. Some people came and offered me 1,000 Rs to sit inside a plane for a few minutes. They said they will just click some photos and let me go, next thing I know the plane took off and I ended up in Hyderabad.”

“On board the flight, I found out that there were several others like me who were promised 500 to 1500 Rupees to get on board the aircraft. After reaching Hyderabad, we were paraded in front of the waiting media at the airport who clicked several pictures of the ‘recued pilgrims’. The politicians left after the photo session, leaving us behind at the airport. Now, we don’t have the money to book a flight back to Dehradun and are stuck here!” Atul went on to say.

When we raised the issue with a local politician in Hyderabad, he said, “There must have been some confusion. We were rescuing every person who looked in the need of a rescue and there may have been some mix-up in one or two cases.”
When we asked whether the competition between political parties is affecting rescue work on ground, he said, “There was no competition between the political parties to take away more people from Uttarakhand. Yes there was a scuffle at the airport but you should not politicize the fight between two political parties.”

When asked whether they are making any arrangements to send these people back to Uttarakhand, the politician said, “We have already hired a charter plane to send these people back to Dehradun. We are just waiting for someone from high command to come and flag off this plane.”