High Alert At Prakasam Barrage, First Flood Warning Issued
AP sanctions ₹1 crore each for 16 districts for relief of rain/flood hit people: Reports
VIJAYAWADA: The high alert continues at Prakasam Barrage with the water level in Krishna River continuing to rise, with a discharge of 4.81 lakh cusecs of water downstream into the sea by 10pm on Tuesday.
However, the first flood-warning was issued when the water discharge from the barrage was at 3.97 lakh cusecs at 11pm. It continues to be in force and the authorities are expecting the water level to rise further with huge inflows of water coming from upstream projects like Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichinthala, which had an outflow of 4.14 lakh cusecs, leading to the filling up of Prakasam Barrage.
The water authorities along with revenue and other stakeholder departments are keeping a close vigil all along the river course downstream to avoid any incident.
Meanwhile, special chief secretary G Jayalakshmi held a tele-conference with the district collectors and directed them to maintain high alert in the wake of heavy rains in upstream areas and major rivers like Godavari, Krishna and Tungabadra having huge inflows of water.
She asked district officials to alert the people living in low-lying areas and evacuate them to rehabilitation centres, if required, and called for keeping all essential commodities, medicines and sanitation material ready.
The special CS announced a sanction of `16 crore to all the affected 16 districts with a payment of `1 crore for each district to evacuate the rain/flood-hit people to safety and to ensure supply of potable water, milk and food and also to conduct health camps.
She said SDRF teams were kept ready for relief and rescue operations at Avanidadda in Krishna district, Vijayawada and Kishna ghat in NTR district, Chintur in ASR district and at Amaapuram in Konaseema district.
The senior official said no permission was given for the operation of boats, motor boats and steamers in the rivers. “No swimming and fishing in the rivers till normalcy is restored,” she said and advised the people to maintain alert until the flood situations came under control.
