Tirupati: Under the influence of a persisting low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal, scattered rain lashed many parts of Chittoor district including Tirupati city on Sunday, even as normalcy is yet to be restored in the tail-end district that was being pounded by rain for the last one month.
Light rain that occurred in several areas since the wee hours intensified into moderate rain by evening and continued till midnight at regular intervals.
Denizens of Tirupati have struggled hard to travel along the low-lying areas in the city, which were again waterlogged.
A two-storey vacant building collapsed around 10.30pm on Saturday at Bhavani nagar in the city but caused no damage to life or properties. The 60-year-old building belonged to MG Srinivasan, a priest at the Padmavathi Ammavari temple in Tiruchanoor.
Town planning officials said they had issued notices to the house- owner, two months ago, saying that the old building might collapse in heavy rains. The house owners immediately vacated the building and shifted to another place.
The eight-day-long work to repair the breach to the Rayala Cheruvu tank near Tirupati was completed by Saturday. Marking the completion, local MLA Bhaskar Reddy had performed special poojas near the site where the tank breached and also did Ganga pooja to the tank water.
Following the securing of the breaches, the residents of 25 villages, who were evacuated in the wake of Rayala Cheruvu tank breaches, were returned to their homes on Sunday. MLA Bhaskar Reddy distributed sarees and fruits to women of 25 villages when they were returning to their homes.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the IMD predicting heavy to very heavy rain in the district for the next three days, district collector Harinarayanan sounded an alert and advised residents living in the low-lying areas to be on the alert. He appealed to the people from low-lying areas to shift to the nearby shelter homes set up by the district administration.
The collector also directed the officials to monitor the inflow and outflow in all reservoirs across the district. After inspecting Araniar and Kalangi reservoirs, the collector directed the project officials and staff to be more vigilant and work on a 24/7 shift basis to inform people residing in low-lying areas before releasing water from the project.
