For CM Jagan's convoy, Andhra officials 'snatch' car from a family on way to Tirupati

The shocking incident occurred on Wednesday night when the family travelling in the car to Tirupati had stopped for dinner at a hotel in Ongole

A family of six, including two children, on their way to Tirupati for darshan were left stranded on a road in Ongole on Wednesday night, when the RTA officials took away the car they were traveling in, along with the driver.

The officials told them that the vehicle was needed for convoy arrangements for Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy's tour in the district on Friday.

Vemula Srinivas and his family were travelling from their hometown Vinukonda to Tirupati in a white Innova which the officials spotted as suitable for the cavalcade.

“We had stopped in Ongole town to have dinner. We were shocked to know that our car was being taken for some government programme. How can they just take away a private vehicle in which a family was traveling? Is this how a government which claims to be working for women and children welfare functions, leaving us in the middle of the road in the dark,” one of the women questioned.

As it was past 10 o'clock in the night, the family, left in an unknown place, reached the town bus-stand to be safe. They had to arrange for another vehicle from Vinukonda and spent a few anxious hours.

The RTA and a policeman accompanying reportedly did not pay heed to their appeal that a car from locals should be taken instead. Officials said that though local vehicles are sometimes taken for such VIP programmes when there is a shortage, cars on long distance tours, especially with families, are not disturbed.

The incident caused major embarrassment for the ruling YSRCP. TDP chief and former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu termed it as 'atrocious and shameful.'

“Officials have atrociously forced a family to get down from the car on the road and then drove it away in the name of CM convoy. Who gave them the right to cause such inconvenience and suffering to a family, obstructing their pilgrimage?”

Naidu demanded to know if the Andhra economy had slipped “into such a pitiable state that the YSRCP government was not able to arrange a car of its own resources for the CM convoy.

“What sort of message are the officials sending to civil society by resorting to car snatching?” he asked.

After the news spread and facing public criticism, CM Reddy ordered the suspension of two officials involved – Tirupal Reddy, home guard and A Sandhya, Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector.

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