When Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao visited a locality in Warangal on Wednesday for a special lunch at Legislative Council member Konda Murali and his wife and Warangal city MLA Konda Sureka's residence, little did the people in the surrounding areas know that they were in for trouble.
The Times of India reported that scores of patients were forced to step out of their vehicles and walk for a kilometre to reach the district's only specialty cardiac care hospital as a 'blockade' played out from 9 am to 3:30 pm, as part of the security arrangements in place for the lunch, which was close to the hospital.
"I wanted to argue with the policemen when they stopped our car while taking my 76-year-old grandfather to the hospital. He was suffering from chest pain on Wednesday morning and urgently needed medical attention. We eventually ended up walking the distance on foot," V Kartik, a young MBA graduate told TOI while another lady was forced to walk with her 28-day-old baby for a check-up. “We were referred to the heart centre from the nearby Hanamkonda Maternity Hospital as my child was having breathing problems. We had no choice but to walk holding the newborn as the cops were not even willing to listen."
However, when the newspaper contacted the Warangal TRS district president, he flatly denied such an incident occurring.
This was the last day of KCR's three-day visit to the district, where he said that a mega textile park, an education hub, a theme park with a convention centre among other things.
Addressing the media, KCR said:
We want to construct a series of buildings replacing the old ones. All old school buildings will be demolished to construct new ones. In the next three years, it has been decided to spend Rs. 3,000 crores in Warangal as it is the biggest place after the state capital Hyderabad in Telangana...Warangal is poorly developed place. We will engage a private consultant to give us a masterplan at the earliest. In February, I will come again to lay foundation to as many as I have announced today such as Health University and Outer Ring Road