Nellore city still under sheet of flood water

Encroachments as well as breaches to the tanks in the villages located on the western side of the town are the reason for the situation turning as bad as in Nellore. Heavy rain on Sunday added to the woes of the people of the town.

Aadi Sankara Engineering College, Narayana Engineering College, SV Arts College and Vidyalaya Degree College are under knee-deep water since last Tuesday.

The situation is no different in several low-lying areas in the town including Narasingaraopeta, BC Colony, Madhreddy Colony on Vindoor Road, Bangisahebpeta, Ashok Nagar, Santhi Nagar and Pulathota Colony because of the downpour to the extent of 10 cm on Sunday night.

Gudur legislator Pasam Suneel Kumar criticised the official machinery for paying attention to VIP visits and ignoring the plight of people living in affected areas.

He alleged that the compound wall of Narayana Engineering College had blocked water from Gudur reaching the Pambaleru and Chllakaluva downstream.

Gudur advocate Y.Chalapathi Rao has attributed the waterlogging in the town to conversion of agricultural lands on the outskirts of the town as residential plots and construction of houses in them.

He felt that construction of educational institutes such as Narayana Engineering College and Karunamayi College in low-lying areas obstructed water flow from the town to Pambaleru and Challakaluva.

He underlined the need to remove encroachments on irrigation canals on a war footing similar to the exercise going on in Nellore to protect Gudur from submerging.

There was six feet of water in RTC bus stand during heavy rain and this is an indicator for the worse situation in the town, he added.

Rain continued to batter parts of the Nellore district, with Gudur mandal recording 99.8 mm in the last 24 hours ending 8.30 am.

Several streams are in spate and three persons were washed away in Tippavarappadu stream late on Sunday night.

Heavy flow of water in the Pambaleru and Kandaleru streams caused by rain affected the repair work to the breach on the national highway.

A part of the road at Induru in Gudur rural mandal was washed away by the raging water. Tippagunta in Chillakuru mandal was marooned due to water from the from Upputeru stream, while two villages, Perapatitippa and Ranganadhapuram, were submerged.

Ministers P. Narayana and Sidda Raghava Rao inspected the encroachments on the irrigation canals at Nellore on Monday.

The drive to clear the silt from all 13 irrigation canals is continuing at a brisk pace in the city. The ministers appealed the public to cooperate with the operation to clear water inundated areas.