Rains, Floods Push Death Toll to 32 in AP

Vijayawada: The death toll in the last four days’ rain and floods has risen to 32 in the three worst-hit districts, namely the NTR, Guntur and Palnadu, by Wednesday. Officials said 24 of these including two missing persons were from NTR district, seven from Guntur and one from Palnadu district.

Some 6.44 lakh people were affected in seven districts. Of them, 45,369 were evacuated to 214 relief camps, 344 pregnant women shifted to health centres and 158 medical camps were opened in the affected areas.

A total of 50 teams of the NDRF, SDRF, Air Force and Navy and six choppers were deployed for search and rescue operations.

Crops in about 1.69 lakh hectares were affected, involving 2.05 lakh farmers in 20 districts. Horticulture crops in 18,631 hectares across five districts were affected.

The state government arranged 228 boats for evacuations from inundated areas while 315 swimmers were engaged in rescue operations. APSRTC arranged 179 buses for transporting passengers from various outlying railway stations to Vijayawada and for relief works.

Due to bad weather, the chief minister cancelled plans for an aerial survey in Vijayawada to find out the extent of inundation of areas caused by the overflowing of Budameru.

The CM, however, reviewed the relief works with the ministers, senior officials and collectors through teleconference and said, “We should extend help to every affected home and identify the dead persons and hand over their bodies to their family members. We should provide ex gratia of `5 lakh to the kin of each dead. We should inform the Centre about the loss suffered by AP and seek matching assistance.”

Union home minister Amit Shah, in a statement said, “The Modi government is closely monitoring the ongoing flood situation in AP. The MHA constituted a central team of experts to visit the affected areas for an assessment of flood management, reservoir management, issues of dam safety etc and make recommendations for relief.”

Based on a call from the chief minister for donations, people from all walks of life started sending money to the CM Relief Fund.

Ministers reached out to the affected areas by available means of transport to oversee delivery of food, milk, water and other requirements to the victims.

Minister K Atchannaidu travelled in an auto rickshaw in the flood-hit areas in the city and inquired about the progress of relief works. Minister Kolusu Parthasarathi visited Division 60 to distribute essential commodities to the affected people.

The authorities have set up a food stock point at Indira Gandhi municipal stadium and distributed 10 lakh food packets, 4.5 lakh lakh milk packets, 10 lakh water bottles, 25,000 biscuit packets and fruits like bananas and sweet potatoes to the flood victims.

Meanwhile, as the floodwaters started receding from the colonies in low-lying areas, the affected people began attempts to return to their homes. In some areas, mud from floods played havoc with homes.

As the flash floods gave no time to the residents, they had left everthing and ran away from their homes to safety.

Naidu told the media after visiting the affected areas that the government would extend all support to the victims. This was the worst devastation he had ever seen in his lifetime, he said.

The CM pointed out that Budameru has become a major problem to the city as all small streams emptied into it. He vowed to remove all encroachments in the lakes.