The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday, April 20, suspended two employees of Road Transport Authority (RTA) for an incident in which a family was left stranded on road after the car in which they were travelling was taken away for the chief minister's convoy. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered action into the incident, RTA Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector (AMVI) A Sandhya and home guard P Tirupati Reddy were suspended.
Vemula Srinivas of Vinukonda in Palnadu district and his family members, including two women and two children, were left stranded on the road in Ongole town after officials took away the car in which they were travelling, along with the driver, saying they needed it for the convoy of the chief minister.
The shocking incident occurred on Wednesday night when the family travelling in the cab to Tirupati had stopped for dinner at a hotel in Ongole. An RTA official told them that they need the vehicle for the convoy of the chief minister who is scheduled to visit Ongole on April 22.
When the family said they were going to Tirupati for pilgrimage, the official reportedly told them that he couldn't help except saying sorry and took away the Innova vehicle along with the driver. The family had to spend the night at the RTC bus stand at Ongole.
The incident triggered public outrage, and TDP Chief and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has lashed out at the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government.
He said that it was "atrocious" that the family's car was snatched away. He said this incident exposed how the “anarchic regime was afflicting the people of the state in the past three years.” Naidu asked whether the state economy had “slipped into such a pitiable state that it was not able to arrange a car from its own resources for the convoy.”
"Who gave the right to the officials to cause such inconvenience and suffering to a family by obstructing their journey? What sort of an example or message that the officials were sending to civil society by resorting to such a car snatching incident?" he asked.
Ater outrage, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered action against erring officials who forcibly took away the cab along with the driver. He has also ordered departmental action against the two officials. "This kind of measure will not be tolerated especially when people are in trouble," the chief minister said.