Rains give jitters to hilly residents

Vijayawada: Residents of hilly areas are concerned over rains as slipping of boulders scaring them. Landslides are a regular phenomenon during the rainy season. The city is witnessing rains for the past three days inundating low-lying roads and residential areas.

Highlights:

• Retaining walls in ruined state
• People living in perilous locations

About two lakh people are living on hills in the city. The people are living there for five decades and their number is steadily increasing. About one-eighth of hill residents have house site pattas. But they cannot register their houses or get loan for any purpose. There are many buildings that received impact of boulders rolling down the hilltops.

Living on hilly area is not easy. Trekking hills to reach their homes is a dangerous task especially during the rainy season. There is every possibility of residents slipping down. Not all the hilly areas have stairs to reach their homes and return to foot of the hill. When living on the hill is itself dangerous, the hilly residents are exposed to dangers of landslides.

“Even lives of devotees of Goddess Durga are at risk as many landslide incidents were reported during the rainy season. The officials usually block the road if boulders fell on Ghat Road. They need to identify trouble locations on Indrakeeladri to save devotees who come for darshan in large numbers,” said Y Gopinath, a resident of Brahmin Street.

“The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has the responsibility to provide infrastructure to the residents settled on hills. They are supposed to check the state of stairs built long ago. But no effort is made in this direction,” said K Srinivas, a resident of Gollapalem Gattu area.

K Subba Raju, former MLA, told The Hans India that when the Left parties were in power in the corporation, they constructed retaining walls at perilous locations, at about 10 places, including One Town, Moghalrajpuram and Machavaram. The non-Left administrations have ignored the walls allowing people to get exposed to landslides, he criticised.

Ch Babu Rao, the CPM leader, informed that the VMC should build the retaining walls as there were dangers lurking on hills at several places. During the past one decade, at least 20 people died of the boulders that rolled down onto the residential areas. “Even stairs are in a bad shape at many places on the hills,” he flayed.

By Noor Shaik