'Govt not running Zomato': IAS rebukes flood-hit villagers in UP, goes viral

A senior IAS officer in rain-hit Uttar Pradesh was caught rebuking people of a flood-affected village who complained about unavailability of food, saying that the government was not "running Zomato service", even as the Yogi Adityanath-led establishment came under fire for poor flood management and for failing to take measures to provide succor to people.

"We will give you chlorine tablets. There will be doctors to treat you but we can not provide cooked food to you in the villages. The government is not running Zomato service. Cooked food will be provided to those who either reach the flood outposts or are brought there," Samuel Paul, District Magistrate of Ambedkar Nagar, one of the flood-affected districts, told victims.

A video of the DM making the remarks went viral online triggering criticism from Opposition and netizens. "The DM must be immediately removed. He is not fit for the job," said a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader.

Also read | Uttar Pradesh government left people 'bhagwan bharose' during rain: BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh

BJP Lok Sabha member Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh came down heavily upon his own government for not doing enough for the flood-affected people. "People are suffering owing to poor flood management," he said.

BJP MP Varun Gandhi, often vocal about his critiques of the government, also took a veiled dig at CM Yogi Adityanath for not postposing the PET (Preliminary Eligibility Test) exams on Sunday in view of the dire flood situation. "UP reels under floods and 37 lakh candidates are out to appear in the PET exam....reaching the exam centres is a bigger challenge than solving the question paper....the ground reality is perhaps not visible from the air," Varun said in a tweet, referring to an aerial survey conducted by Adityanath a couple of days ago.

More than 1,600 villages in as many as 21 districts were affected by the floods caused by unseasonal heavy rains in UP in the past few days. Several major rivers including Ganga, Ghagra and others were flowing above the danger mark at several places inundating large tracts of land.