The Andhra Pradesh government has placed the Managing Director of AP Aviation Corporation (APAC) K V Brahmananda Reddy under suspension taking a serious view of his callous attitude in arranging the official helicopter for Chief Minister K Rosaiah's aerial survey of the flood-hit areas.
The Chief Minister was forced to wait for about an hour for the helicopter and the resultant delay led to his abrupt cancellation of the aerial survey.
Brahmananda Reddy, an Indian Railway Accounts Service officer, has been on deputation with the State Government and has been appointed the AP Aviation Corporation MD three months ago.
He escaped any disciplinary action after the helicopter tragedy last month, in which former Chief Minisiter Y S Rajashekhara Reddy killed, though glaring lapses related to the functioning of the Aviation Corporation came to light.
Today, the Chief Minister's Office informed the Aviation Corporation about Rosaiah's aerial survey of the flood-hit districts and wanted the official helicopter kept ready in time.
The Chief Minister, accompanied by Revenue Minister D Prasada Rao and other officials, reached Begumpet Airport at 12.10 pm for taking off to Vijayawada, Kurnool and Mahaboodnagar.
However, the helicopter was not ready and even the pilot came more than half-an-hour behind schedule.
Efforts by the Chief Minister's Additional Secretary M Pratap to contact Brahmananda Reddy proved futile as the latter did not answer the call on his mobile.
The Chief Minister and others took off for aerial survey around 1.25 pm and reached Vijayawada around 2.45 pm. After completing a brief review meeting with officials in Vijayawada the chief Minister took off for Kurnool around 4 pm. But the Chief Minister could not undertake the aerial survey in Kurnool and Mahaboobnagar because of bad weather and had to return to Hyderabad.
Taking a very serious view of the entire episode, the Chief Minister directed Chief Secretary T Ramakanth Reddy to immediately place Brahmananda Reddy under suspension. A formal government order will be issued tomorrow, official source said. PTI
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