Floods: Naidu demands govt to take action against officials

THE HINDU TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu during his visit to the flood-affected K. Kothapalem village in Krishna district on Monday. Photo: Ch Vijaya Bhaskar

TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday demanded that the state government take stern action against the officials who failed to prevent the devastating floods despite the prior warning from Central Water Commission (CWC).

He told reporters here that though the CWC on September 29 warned the State officials of heavy in-flow of water from upper stream of Krishna river into Srisailam project, the officials did not heed to the caution.

The opposition leader said the officials concerned failed to prevent the floods and the administration is totally responsible for the disaster.

Mr. Naidu further alleged that Irrigation Department engineers and ministers concerned from state government did not follow the instructions of Central Disaster Management Department to prevent the floods. Improper maintenance of river bunds in Krishna and Guntur districts also led to the floods, he said.

He alleged that though his government prepared a plan of action to strengthen the bunds of river Krishna in both Guntur and Krishna districts, corrupted officials and ministers concerned changed the designs and allotted works to inefficient contractors.

Housing scheme for flood-hit

Chief Minister K. Rosaiah announces a special housing scheme for families affected by floods in Kurnool, Mahabubnagar, Krishna, Guntur and Nalgonda districts.

750,000 children need help in flood hit Andhra, Karnataka

 

 

 Sending out a call for help, international NGO Save the Children estimates that around 7,50,000 children are in desperate need of clean water, medical care and food in the flood-hit districts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

If help doesn’t reach fast, there is an imminent threat of an outbreak of diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases that will further risk the lives of millions of children and others, the NGO said.

“Thirteen per cent of all under-five children in Andhra Pradesh are already acutely malnourished. The high levels of acute malnutrition in this region mean that children are far more likely to die of diarrhoea and acute respiratory disease -the biggest killers of children in India,” Thomas Chandy, CEO of Save the Children, said.

P. Raghu of ActionAid, another international NGO working for the flood victims in both Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, added: “Our flood rescue teams are overwhelmed. Thousands are still languishing without food and water.”

According to Save the Children, over 2,75,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, leaving behind everything. Two hundred villages have been completely submerged. “Children are most vulnerable in any emergency and the floods come on top of an already dire situation. This is a crisis on top of an emergency,” Mr. Chandy said.

“Around 3,50,000 children under five die annually of diarrhoea in India and this time we fear the worst. We need corporate houses, individuals, everyone to come forward to strengthen our efforts on the ground. Any little help that we receive will ensure that one more child will be safe, healthy and protected.”

Rs. 1,000-crore advance aid for Andhra Pradesh

 

HYDERABAD: After an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of Andhra Pradesh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday announced Rs. 1000 crore as advance Central assistance for relief and rehabilitation measures.

Dr. Singh said further assistance would come through in accordance with the established procedures, after a Central team visited the State to assess the extent of damage. During his survey of Krishna and Guntur districts, along with Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, he saw the devastation caused by the floods.

Responding to the charge that flood-hit Karnataka did not get adequate assistance from the Centre as it was ruled by the BJP, Dr. Singh said there was no discrimination against any State.

“When it comes to human tragedy, we will not discriminate between one State and another on political considerations. As long as I am the Prime Minister, it will not happen.”

When his response was sought to the Andhra Pradesh government’s demand that the floods be treated as a national calamity, he said: “Every such calamity is a national calamity. There is no particular reason why it should not be?”

Dr. Singh refused to be drawn into a discussion on the reported failure of the Central Water Commission and the early warning system on the impending floods. He said he was not here to find fault with agencies or judge how efficiently they had worked.

“My purpose was to get a broad idea of the havoc caused by the floods.” At the same time, the Centre would take a critical look at lapses, if any, including aspects relating to disaster management, and take remedial steps.

Asked to comment on AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s observations on inter-linking of rivers, the Prime Minister said the proposal was there for some time but it was not an easy task. It was a massive exercise having environmental implications and requiring a thorough study. The Water Resources Ministry was preparing a detailed project report. When he was told that the State government had sought Rs.12,225-crore aid, the Prime Minister asserted: “Money will not be a constraint. I assure people of the State of all help from the Centre. We will stand behind the State in this hour of crisis.”

YSR’s project sorrow of Andhra town

The Hindu People walking on the marooned railway track on the outskirts of Nandyal town in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

The controversial Pothireddypadu head regulator project which regulates flow of water from a dam and whose capacity was enhanced to 40,000 cusecs by late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy despite strong opposition from all parties, has proved to be the sorrow of Nandyal town and many villages around in Kurnool district.

Nandyal, a town with a population of about two lakh, is not new to floods. River Kundu that flows along this town causes a deluge every other monsoon but never in the past has that been such a devastating flood as this year.

Kundu originates in the Orvakallu mandal of Kurnool district and traverses through constituencies like Nandyal, Aallagadda, Jammalamadugu, Mydukuru and Prodduturu and joins river Penna in neighbouring Kadapa district.

Kundu witnessed at least eight floods since 1994 but none of them caused any major destruction to properties except crops.

The Nandyal town never remains water-logged for more than 24 hours even during worst floods earlier. This time, however, it remained under a thick sheet of water for over six days, former minister N Md Farook, who hails from Nandyal, said.

Local Congress MP S P Y Reddy said the heavy discharge from the Pothireddypadu head regulator, where flood water from the Srisailam reservoir overflowed, has left Kundu flooded.

For many years, locals have been demanding that the government should take steps to check flooding of Kundu river.

In fact, a project to widen and deepen the river at Nandyal to prevent flooding of the town was sanctioned long ago and even the tenders for work worth Rs 75 crore were finalised.

There has been a problem because of some encroachments and litigation. We will soon sort out the problem and take up the work, the MP said.

Meanwhile, more than 2,500 families have taken shelter in relief camps put up by the district administration in various schools in the town, while more than 5,000 families went back to their houses.

As one steps into the town, one cannot avoid a thick layer of slush which built up because of the heavy flood.

Like in Kurnool town, the district headquarters, Nandyal too is stinking due to the mounds of filth that have piled up.

People have started rushing back home from relief camps to take stock of their belongings and begin the clean-up act as the flood water is receding in many colonies.

“I stayed in my relative’s house at Dhone (Dronachalam) for three days after the flood and returned only this afternoon with family. It will take at least a week or more for us to put the house back in order,” Venkata Reddy of Nadigadda area in the town said.

Some areas like Harijanawada, RTC bus station, Rani-Maharani Theatres junction and Saleem Nagar remain inundated.

The national highway connecting Nandyal and Guntur has been re-opened for traffic after remaining closed for more than five days.

.8,000 sq-km submerged in a day

 

Vijaywada, Oct. 6 — The furious river waters sheared for days through farmland and homes, inundating 20 lakh acres every day – Delhi five times over, or 13 cities the size of Mumbai. The Krishna rushed in from the Almatti dam in Karnataka and submerged 8,000 sq-km of land in a day. It now stands at the gates of the British colonial-era Prakasam Barrage in Andhra Pradesh next door, and a breach here could submerge vast swathes in the state’s rice-rich Krishna and Guntur districts. The Prakasam barrage is a key passageway for the Krishna, which meanders through Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh on way to the Bay of Bengal. On Tuesday, hundreds jostled here despite restrictions. Nearby, on a hillock, is the Kanaka Durga temple. People here believe that the day the idol is submerged, the entire city of Vijaywada will be washed away. If it does, it would be blamed on tardy cooperation between the two states. Until Saturday night, Andhra Pradesh did not evacuate people from the catchment of the Nagarjunasagar Dam as the Karnataka government assured that no more water would be released from its Srisalam dam. But as floodwaters poured in, gates were opened at Srisalam, worsening the situation. “There appeared to be a breakdown of communication between the two neighbouring states,” said a senior official of the National Disaster Management Authoritry (NDMA), speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. But technology might soon make up for government delays. NDMA member NVC Menon said that by 2012, people would be alerted about rising water within minutes of it being tracked by satellites. Sloth after natural disasters is a annual story in India, a flood prone nation where tackling flooding comes under the states’ domain and New Delhi’s financial assistance since 2007 of Rs 8,000 crore (Rs 80 billion) has shown few results. Then, there is the lack of accountability.

“In the last 60 years, not a single engineer has ever been charged or punished for mismanagement of these dams,” he said.

Hindustan Times

Rosaiah to undertake aerial survey of flood-hit areas

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah will undertake an aerial survey of flood-affected districts in the state today, official sources said here.

Mr. Rosaiah will visit the worst-affected Kurnool apart from Mahaboonagar and Krishna districts, they said.

The Chief Minister, who held discussion at the Secretariat here with his ministerial colleagues on the relief measures in the flood-hit areas, told reporters that the water-level in Kurnool town and some parts of Mahabubnagar district was receding.

“Flood situation in Kurnool town and some parts of Mahabubnagar district was improving in view of gradual reduction in inflow of water from dams in Karnataka,” he said.

He said so far 37 people had lost their lives due to the floods and the figure was likely to go up.

The Chief Minister will be accompanied by Revenue Minister D Prasada Rao during his tour to the flood-hit areas.

“First we will tour Vijayawada town in Krishna district and if weather permits, we will also take up aerial survey of Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts,” Rosaiah told reporters after a meeting with his ministerial colleagues.

“If weather permits, we will also hold discussion with district authorities either at Vijayawada or Kurnool,” he added.

Flood situation worsens in Andhra Pradesh

SHATTERED HOPE: A woman cries on seeing her submerged house at P. Garlapadu village, about 180 km from Hyderabad, in Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. Photo: AP

A 500-metre-long bridge across the Tungabhadra river near Gilkesugur village, 32 km from Raichur, was washed away in flash floods in Karnataka, even as the situation eased in Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bellary and Raichur districts of the State with the water-level in the Krishna, Tungabhadra and several streams and rivulets receding on Sunday.

However, the massive flood in the Krishna wreaked havoc in Krishna, Guntur and Nalgonda districts of Andhra Pradesh as enormous quantities of water were released from Nagarjunasagar dam and Vijayawada’s Prakasam Barrage inundating about 400 villages, including all island habitations, and rendering over 4 lakh people homeless.

The death toll in the two States rose to 205, a PTI report said. It said Karnataka accounted for all the 12 fresh deaths, taking the fatalities in the State to 168. A total of 37 people perished in Andhra Pradesh.

The road link between Raichur and other cities like Adoni, Kurnool and Yemmiganur in Andhra Pradhesh and Bellary in Karnataka has been cut off.

Nearly 1.80 lakh people, who have been rendered homeless following unprecedented rains in north Karnataka, have been provided accommodation in 589 relief camps in different districts. Food packets and medicines were airdropped in several areas.

Even as the rain havoc in six districts of the State has resulted in large scale destruction to private and public property, the Karnataka government has called upon all its employees not to go on leave for at least a month and focus all attention on providing relief to the affected people .

Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa accompanied by Minister for Revenue G. Karunakara Reddy is himself leading the relief and rescue operations. AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Union Minister for Home P. Chidambaram will conduct an aerial survey on Monday and Mr. Yeddyurappa along with State Home Minister V.S. Acharya and the Revenue Minister will accompany them.

The release of water from the Narayanpur dam has been reduced from 4.7 lakh cusecs to 3.11 lakh cusecs.

In Andhra Pradesh, the rain and floods have caused large-scale devastation at Mantralayam, 40 km from Raichur. The Brindavana of saint Raghavendra Swami is situated there. A major part of the structure around Raghavendra Swamy Mutt and buildings have been damaged, and materials stored in the mutt and nearby shops have been destroyed. Sixty-five cows at a “goshala” of the mutt died in the floods.

Nandyal town in Kurnool district was engulfed by the swollen Kundu river, which overflowed into the town and over 40 villages around it as water from the Krishna joined it. A large portion of the railway track near the town was washed away, disrupting train services.

Although the situation in Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts improved after water began receding, people in Mantraylayam panicked and ran helter skelter in the evening following rumours that the Tungabhadra dam at Hospet developed a breach.

A tense situation prevailed in Krishna, Guntur and Nalgonda districts where the Krishna rose menacingly and flowed into the villages. In Nalgonda, the famous Lakshminarasimha temple at Mattapalli in Nalgonda district was partially submerged by the Krishna in spate. In Guntur district, the Buddhist centre of Amaravathi was cut off and about 50 villages abutting it were faced with the same fate.

Traffic on the high level road-bridge that connects Hyderabad to Guntur was held up for 5 km on either side as huge crowds thronged the area to see the spectacle of Nagarjunasagar releasing a high outflow of over 10 lakh cusecs.

In Krishna district, the river water flowed into Budameru, a dangerous drain that, in turn, flooded several areas in Vijayawada. The river also overflowed onto the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway in Kanchikacherla, Ibrahimpatnam and other places. Officials were apprehensive about the safety of the cooling tower of Vijayawada Thermal Power Station.

Two persons found on a hay stack floating in the river were rescued by an Army chopper.

Chief Minister K. Rosaiah undertook an aerial survey accompanied by Revenue Minister D. Prasada Rao.

.AP floods at a glance-Image Gallery

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