KAKINADA: A woman and a 14-year-old girl, both relatives, drowned and another two persons were injured when they were taking a bath in Godavari river in Pichuka Lanka in Atreyapuram mandal of East Godavari district on Wednesday.
It is alleged that negligence of irrigation officials who released surplus water into the sea by lifting the gates, without giving any warning or caution to the people, caused the incident.
According to Atreyapu-ram police sub-inspector I. James Ratna Prasad, 20 members of a family came to Hukumpet village for attending a marriage party. They went to take a dip in the Godava-ri waters at Pichuka Lanka. All of a sudden, the water flow increased as surplus water was let out in the river by lifting the gates, though it was the closure time for canals.
Tirupathi Nagamani (38) and Tirupati Manasa (14) were washed away in the waters and another two persons were inju-red. The injured were given treatment in a local hospital and the bodies were sent to Rajahmu-ndry government hospital for post-mortem.
Atreyapuram police re-gistered a case of suspicious death. Amalapu-ram DSP L. Ankaiah, who visited the spot, said it seems to be negligence of the officials for releasing waters by lifting the gates without giving any caution.
He said the case could be altered to negligence on part of irrigation officials after making inquiry.
Family members of the deceased alleged that when they got into the river for taking bath, there was hardly any water in it and after some time, all of a sudden, the water flow increased.
“We were at the shore. When the water flow increased, we alerted our members and dragged them out. Some escaped by reaching to the shore. But, my wife and my brother’s daughter could not be rescued,’’ said T. Srinu, the husband of deceased Nagamani. The couple had three children, including a boy.
Another deceased Manasa is daughter of T. Rambabu. They alleged that the irrigation officials or their personnel did not give any alerts to them before releasing the waters.
Irrigation officials refute charges of victims’ kin
Irrigation department officials denied the allegations of the marriage party that lost two lives in river Godavari near Pichuka Lanka in Atreyapuram mandal of East Godavari on Wednesday.
Headworks Executive Engineer N. Krishna Rao said there is a surplus of water of 4,000 cusecs per day in the Godavari and it was being released into the sea and it is a regular practice. However, to store the water, the releasing of water stopped by closing all the gates on Wednesday early hours. He said the spot where the marriage party members took a bath was not at all safe and even warning boar-ds were set up there. But the people were simply ignoring the warnings and removed the warning boards in a careless manner.
He said the deceased might not have been carried away by the force of water current. It is quite possible that they may have got stuck in the mire or slough on the river bed.
He said there is no fault with the irrigation department side in the incident and the marriage party should have asked the local people whether their chosen spot is right to take bath or not.
Sources said the incident took place at 70th gate. But, the irrigation officials inspect 30 to 40 gates.
