50 villages bear the brunt in W. Godavari

Water enters tribal hamlets in Polavaram and other mandals

Boats anchored on the bank of the Godavari river near the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram in East Godavari district on Sunday.

About 50 villages in the Agency area and other mandals in West Godavari district have been cut off from the rest of the world due to floods and incessant rains in the catchment of the Godavari and its tributaries.

Flood water entered many tribal hamlets in Velerupadu, Polavaram and Kukunur mandals. Some villages in Achanta, Elamanchili and Narsapuram mandals were also affected.

Road links have been cut off to several habitations since Saturday night. In Patha Polavaram and Velerupadu mandals, many tribal families shifted to safer places and pitched huts on hillslopes.

Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), revenue and police officials arranged boats for shifting the families staying in riverside habitations. Police arranged pickets at low-level bridges to caution the public.

Shattering effect

Communication has been snapped to many villages, including Koruturu, Gaddapalli, Kondrukota, Vadapalli, Paidipalaka Mamidi, Sirivaka, Cheeduru, Tekuru, Tella Dibbala, Koida, Repakagommu and Rudramkota, in the Agency area.

Polavaram MLA Tellam Balaraju, Collector Revu Mutyala Raju, Joint Collector K. Venkataramana Reddy, K.R. Puram ITDA Project Officer R.V. Suryanarayana, Jangareddygudem Revenue Divisional Officer Y.N. Prasanna Lakshmi, Polavaram MRO Nazeemullah Shah and other officials visited the flood-affected villages in Polavaram mandal on Sunday.

The Collector, after visiting the river bund at Patha Polavaram, directed the officials to evacuate the people staying in the low-lying areas. Polavaram DSP M. Venkateswara Rao and CI A.N.N. Murthy and Tallapudi SI G. Satish arranged pickets and were monitoring the situation.