Stampede at PRP office for ration kits in Kurnool

A near stampede condition prevailed at the Praja Rajyam office here on Friday when party leaders offered to distribute sample kits of provisions among the public. Women jostled against one another to collect their bags containing 25 kg rice, redgram dhal, edible oil and salt of one kilo each and half-a-kilo tamarind. The leaders distributed free coupons to five hundred families to enable them to get the sample kits. The entire exercise cost the party Rs. 3 lakh. Moid Khan, Lagisetty Viswanatham, Venkateswarlu and Iqbal contributed to the scheme. After launching the scheme, district convener Bhuma Nagireddy said, the idea behind the sample kits’ distribution was to introduce the grand scheme of the Praja Rajyam to people and make it known to them that the scheme would be a permanent one if the party came to power. The family had to pay Rs. 100 to get the kit which was worth Rs. 500. However, the sample kits were distributed free-of-cost. On learning about the free distribution, women stormed the office in a large numbers. Some reached there with coupons and some without coupons. As the distribution counter was upstairs, the staircase leading to it was overcrowded. Some women who had collected their bags and could not come back through the staircase, started dropping their bags to the floor from the top. While some kits got damaged in the process, other women lost their bags by the time they could come down to collect them. The leaders said, the programme was a huge success as it drew good response from the women. Enthused by the response, Mr. Nagireddy said, the leaders would go to Srisailam first and launch the campaign in the district starting from Aluru. The district leaders would complete the preliminary round of campaign by the time Chiranjeevi visited the district in February. posted by MEGA NANI