Several main roads and localities of One Town, the old city of Vijayawada, continue to remain submerged by rainwater for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, in what is being described by the local people as a hardship they have not experienced in the last four decades.
The rain that lashed the city during the last two nights led to the flooding of most of the areas, with the level of stagnated water going up from knee-deep to waist-deep even on the main roads. Educational institutions and business establishments have been closed, while supply of milk and drinking water has been badly hit. Water entered some ATMs too.
The situation is not expected to ease immediately, as the depression in the Bay of Bengal is likely to induce more rain. There are fears that the waterlogging could lead to outbreak of diseases.
While the civic officials attribute the problem to the Railway authorities’ non-cooperation to the desilting of an outfall drain passing beneath a railway overbridge in the area, local people hold the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) squarely responsible for not developing the underground drainage network in One Town for several years.
Mayor M.V. Ratna Bindu, who is supervising the relief operations, was besieged by the local people and was questioned about the “inaction” of the VMC.
