VIJAYAWADA: Three outsourced staff of AP Tourism, who were sacked from their duties by Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya for their alleged connection with the boat capsize incident near Pavitra Sangamam Ghat have decided to stage a protest. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, A Srinivasa Rao, one among the sacked staff, expressed shock with the minister’s decision and alleged that they were made a scapegoat in the incident.
‘’We are in no way connected to the boat capsize incident. At that moment, we were performing the duties assigned to us by APTDC officials. Soon after the incident, officials directed us to operate speed boats to Pavitra Sangamam for rescue operations,’’ said Rao. AP Tourism Contract, Manpower, Daily Wage Employees and Workers Union backed the protest to be undertaken by the sacked employees. Union working president A V Nageswara Rao came down heavily on Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for his inefficiency in taking action against the real culprits and for sacking the outsourced staff.
A judicial inquiry with High Court judges should be called by the government to bring out the actual facts in the case, he demanded.Nageswara Rao also pointed out that it was Naidu who circulated 10 GOs encouraging private boating companies to operate water sports Krishna river. The Chief minister should own moral responsibility for the incident and the sacked outsourcing staff should be reinstated with immediate effect, he said. The Union leader also said that a State committee meeting will be held in the city on November 20 to discuss the future course of action.