The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s plan of distributing Rs 10,000 in cash to the people towards flood relief in the rain battered areas of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and adjoining 15 municipalities to gain big political mileage in the GHMC elections seems to have backfired.
Initially, the TRS leaders themselves went door to door to distribute cash to the victims so as to garner their votes.
But the plan led to largescale corruption, as the party leaders allegedly pocketed 30-40 per cent of the money to be distributed among the victims.
As this led to massive protests from the people, the TRS government announced that those who had not got the flood relief cash can get the same through their nearby Mee Seva centres.
This turned out be yet another blunder, as thousands of people thronging the Mee Seva centres to submit applications and get the money.
The authorities had tough time in controlling the crowds which had thrown the social distancing norms to winds.
There was stampede at many places and on Wednesday, one old woman died of suffocation at Neknampet Mee Seva centre under Golkonda police station limits.
At many centres, the Mee Seva centres could not handle the rush and their servers went crashed.
The flood victims were also angry with the Mee Seva centres for collecting money in the name of processing fees.
Much to the relief of the authorities, the state election commission finally issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon asking them to stop distribution of cash through Mee Seva Centres as the model code of conduct has come into force for the GHMC elections.
The SEC said the flood relief distribution could be done after the model code of conduct comes to an end.
In a way, the SEC indirectly helped the TRS from incurring the wrath of the people due to difficulties in the implementation of flood relief distribution!