The National Disaster Response Force (NRDF) team on Saturday retrieved two more bodies of students, who drowned in river Krishna at Peddapulipaka village in Penamaluru mandal in the district on Friday.
Six boys of Kanuru village who went for a swim into the river drowned on Friday. The Fire and NDRF personnel fished out four bodies during search operations that went on late into night. The teams resumed search operations on Saturday and retrieved the bodies of N. Yesupadam (13) and Chekuri Sai Phaneendra (14), Assistant Commandant Rana Pratap Bharti, who headed the NDRF operation, told The Hindu .
Penamaluru police handed over the bodies to the bereaved families after conducting post-mortem. Leaders of Telugu Desam Party staged a protest at the New Government General Hospital (GGH) seeking ex-gratia to the bereaved families. The TDP workers said the party announced Rs. 50,000 financial aid to the victim’s families and party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu would hand over the amount to the families during his visit to the district on August 14.
YSR Congress district convener S. Udaya Bhanu expressed condolences to the victim’s family members.
A pall of gloom descended on Kanuru village. Nalluri Yesupadam was studying in class VIII, another victim Phaneendra was a student of class IX in Kanuru Zilla Parishad School. Yesupadam’s brother, Nalluri Rakesh (14) also drowned in the incident and his body was retrieved on Saturday.
