Andhra Pradesh: Fresh Flood Alert Forces 3,000 Families Upland
Villagers were initially evacuated to relief camps on Monday but had returned home as waters subsided earlier in the week.
Visakhapatnam: More than 3,000 families have been shifted to higher ground as fresh flooding threatens Chintoor, Kunavaram, V.R. Puram and Etapaka villages in Alluri Sitarama Raju (ASR) district on Thursday.
The Godavari has risen to 44 ft, prompting the authorities to issue the first-warning signal. Twenty-five villages across the four mandals are affected, district collector A.S. Dinesh Kumar said.
“People may return once the water recedes,” the collector told this correspondent, adding that eight road stretches in V.R. Puram mandal, two in Kunavaram and one in Chintoor have been cut off. Essential commodities are being supplied and boats deployed to ferry villagers to hospitals and safer locations.
Villagers were initially evacuated to relief camps on Monday but had returned home as waters subsided earlier in the week.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) leaders in Kunavaram mandal demanded immediate financial aid and uninterrupted supplies of essentials for those stranded. Mandal secretary Babu Borayya said it was “unfortunate” that no substantive help had reached flood-hit habitations even after 15 days of waterlogging.
He recalled earlier assurances that the government would establish fully equipped relief centres and maintain bumper stocks of food and necessities, but “nothing has been done so far and no official has visited the submerged villages”.
Another party leader stressed that cut-off roads and broken communications leave the mandals isolated each monsoon, urging a permanent solution to the recurring crisis.
