The flood waters from the rain swollen Munneru river encircled several houses in the low-lying areas on either side of the river banks in the town on Friday morning, prompting the authorities to move around 340 flood-affected families to the safer places here.
Dozens of families from Kalvavoddu, Prakashnagar, Venkateshwaranagar and a few other localities lying in proximity to the river were shifted to the relief camps set up at the Government Women's Degree College and the Nayabazar Government Junior College, sources said.
The incessant rain-induced heavy inflows from other small rivers, including Akeru and Buggeru, in the catchment areas of the Munneru river, led to a sharp rise in the water level in the Munneru in the early hours of the day. However, the water level in the river showed signs of receding late in the afternoon.
Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar visited the old bridge across the Munneru where he took stock of the situation arising out of the swirling waters of the river spilling over to the periphery of a few residential colonies situated along the river banks. Collector R V Karnan and others accompanied him.
Later in the day, a group of the CPI (M) leaders led by the party district secretary N Nageswara Rao visited the flood-hit residential colonies including Mothinagar, Sundaraiahnagar, Prakashnagar and Manchikantinagar.
The flood-hit dwellers narrated their ordeal to the CPI (M) delegation saying the heavy water-logging at the doorsteps of their houses led to quite a commotion in the early hours of the day.
Some of them deplored that they had to move out of their houses leaving their household articles and other belongings in their houses surrounded by sheets of water.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Nageswara Rao demanded that the State government offer immediate relief to the flood-affected families by providing essential commodities and ₹10,000 financial assistance to each family. More number of relief camps should be opened and a special sanitation drive should be implemented in the flood-hit areas to prevent outbreak of seasonal diseases, he said.
Flood banks must be constructed on either side of the Munneru river banks here to find a long-term solution to the recurring problem of water-logging in the areas abutting the Munneru, he said, demanding that a new bridge be constructed along the existing decades-old bridge across the Munneru in the town.
