Sonia to visit flood-hit Andhra Pradesh; toll mounts to 38

Hyderabad : The death toll in devastation caused by floods rose to 38 in Andhra Pradesh even as the focus of the flood fury shifted to Vijayawada, which is set to witness a record inflow of about 10.60 lakh cusecs tomorrow inundating more island villages in Diviseema.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will make an aerial survey tomorrow of flood-hit Kurnool and Mahboobnagar districts where flood waters started receding providing much-needed access for relief and rescue operations.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah, returning after an aerial survey of flood-affected areas, told reporters that the situation would improve tomorrow with further reduction in inflow into Srisailam reservoir at 1900 hrs to 9.31 lakh cusecs.

”There is nothing to worry as we have an additional storage space of 11 TMC in Nagarjunasagar,” he said.

Irrigation officials told UNI that the inflow into Prakasam barrage was likely to go up to 10.60 lakh cusecs by tomorrow morning and was expected to recede slowly thereafter.

Though the government maintained that the death toll was 38 and unofficial sources said the toll could be more than double as more areas become accessible.

The worst-affected Mahbubnagar accounted for a maximum death of 17 followed by Kurnool 15, Krishna three, Nalgonda two and Guntur one, an official release said.

The authorities in Karnataka impounded over one lakh cusecs of water in Naryanpur and another 50,000 cusecs in Thungabadra following requests from irrigation authroties in Andhra Pradesh to tackle the unprecedented floods.

A Vijayawada report quoting Irrigation Department sources said the inflow from Nagarjunasagar rose to 8.83 lakh cusecs this evening.

Andhra Pradesh Animal Husbandary Minister P Parthasarathy supervising the flood situation said the barrage was designed to handle an inflow of 11.5 lakh cusecs.