Roads, colonies flooded with rainwater in Anantapur

Anantapur-Puttaparthi: Several residential areas in Anantapurtown were inundated following heavy rains lashing the region since Tuesday night. Water from overflowing lakes entered houses in several colonies on the outskirts of the town, rendering hundreds homeless. Authorities sent teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) from Kurnool to Anantapur for rescue and relief operations. Anantapur, which is synonymous with drought, saw unprecedented rains and flash floods. Residents were facing severe hardships as they lost all their belongings. Several houses in Rudrampeta, Rajaknagar, Hanuman colony, Shantinagar, Vivekananda nagar and Viswashanthi nagar were inundated and roads were badly damaged disrupting normal life. In Viswashanthi nagar, DSP Sreenivasulu and his team including Circle Inspectors Jakeer Hussein and A Srinivasulu helped people to move to safety wading through knee deep water in the colony.

Already the Handri-Neeva water has filled village tanks and the rainwater aggravated the problem. Areas in Raptadu including Yaleru, Bukkacherla, Alamooru, Kattakindapalle, Katnekaluva and Kakkalapalle were inundated by rainwater, out of drains, tanks and rivulets. In Rajaknagar and Rangaswamy nagar, the open areas filled with rainwater resembled a lake. Several women complained of hunger as they could not cook food in their waterlogged kitchen.

People living in Nadivanka, Hanuman colony, Yuvajana colony, Yerukalavari veedhi, Nehru nagar, Poor men's colony and Somnathnagar were moved to school buildings and community halls.

They said water entered their houses late Tuesday night, forcing them to save themselves by moving to a safe place. Roads in the affected areas turned into rivulets while houses were still under three-feet deep water.

Local officials shifted affected people to Saibaba temple and government schools where temporary relief camps have been set up.

People complained that the authorities failed to come to their rescue. They said they lost food, essential commodities, clothes, utensils and all household items. At a few places, people were seen wading through waist-deep water to salvage whatever belongings they could.

The affected people demanded immediate steps to provide food and drinking water and milk to the children.

District Collector Nagalakshmi Selvarajan, MLA Anantha Venkatarama Reddy, DSP Sreenivasulu, Municipal Commissioner Bhagyalakshmi and RDO Madhusudan visited the waterlogged areas on Wednesday and responded to people's complaints. Narayanamma of Rajaknagar colony expressed her ire at the authorities and people's representatives saying every time we vote, nothing is done to improve our lot or sanitation.

Another Nagamani of the same colony says that the authorities must find a permanent solution for the problem of inundation as this has become an annual feature.

The officials and MLA listened to the woes of people and discussed action plan to deal with inundation problem. Tahsidhar Sridhar was also present. Residential areas around Nadimivanka channel which flows through the town were inundated due to heavy flow of rainwater from Alamur and Yaleru lakes. People alleged that encroachments hampered the flow of water leading to inundation.

Angry residents in Rudramapet area came together to demolish a few walls which were obstructing the flow of water.