ST officials seek PM's intervention to save mountaineer Malli Mastan

VIJAYAWADA: Tribal officials and activists on Thursday held a rally in the city demanding the immediate intervention of Union government to rescue the mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu, who stuck in Andes mountains of Chili. The activists later submitted a representation to the sub-collector Nagalakshmi requesting her to send their request to the State and Central governments.
District ST employees association general secretary Malli Bhaskara Rao said that any lapse of time in launching serious search operations might pose more trouble to the life of world record holder mountaineer Mastan Babu. Although, CM had taken a bold decision to send sister of Mastan Babu, Dorasanamma to Argentina to monitor the search operations, intervention of Indian Army would have been more of help in tracking the mountaineer, he said. He requested the CM to personally speak to the prime minister Narendra Modi to press the Indian army into search operations as searching with a private chopper by the friends of Mastan were not only expensive but also risky. He said that Mastan was Indian jewel as he had been trekking the mountains only to hoist the national flag.
“We are worried about the survival of Indian pride. Both State and Central governments should have swung into the action on their own instead of making routine enquiries through phone calls,” rued state president T Nageswara Rao.