Water from the Krishna reached up to the steps of former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s residence at Undavalli in Guntur district, as the flood discharge from the Prakasam barrage continued to be heavy on Friday.
Workers placed sandbags and other material to stop the water from entering the house, but the situation was grim as the river was still in spate.
Officials of the Water Resources Department (WRD) warned the workers to leave the building in view of the possibility of it being inundated as about 7,71,135 cusecs water was being released from the barrage at 5 p.m.
The first floor had already been vacated due to the threat of flooding.
Mr. Naidu has been camping in Hyderabad for the last three days and monitoring the situation from there.
It may be noted that the WRD had issued a notice to Mr. Naidu to vacate the building citing violation of the River Conservancy Act (RCA).
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy himself stated in the Assembly that the Lingamaneni guest house where Mr. Naidu had been staying was obstructing the natural course of the river as it was built in blatant violation of the RCA and without clearances from the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA).
The river conservator had rejected permission for its construction.
The crux of the matter is that the height of the building is 19 metres while the maximum flood level is 22.60 metres.
TDP sees conspiracy
Meanwhile, the hovering of a drone over Mr. Naidu’s residence evoked protests by the TDP leaders and workers. The police later took them into custody.
The opposition party leaders suspect a conspiracy behind it.
Water Resources Minister P. Anil Kumar clarified that the drone was deployed by the WRD for taking visuals of the water flowing downstream.
Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy contended that the entire riverbed was being watched with the help of the drone, not just Mr. Naidu’s residence as was alleged by the TDP.
A senior police official said personnel of the Intelligence Security Wing (ISW) stopped two persons who were operating drones and alerted the Guntur urban police.
In the meantime, the TDP cadres, reached the spot, obstructed the police from taking the drone operators into custody, raised slogans against the police and prevented them from discharging their duties, it was alleged.
Former Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, TDP MLC T.D. Janardhan, Telugu Yuvatha State president Devineni Avinash, former MLA Alapati Rajendra Prasad and MLC Dokka Manikya Varaprasad were among those who raised slogans against the government and the police.
When Ministers Botcha Satyanarayana, Mr. Anil Kumar and Vellampalli Srinivas went to observe the flood situation at the house of the Leader of the Opposition in the evening, the TDP leaders raised slogans, forcing them to return.
“We will book cases against the protesters who prevented the police at Undavalli and took law into their hands,” the police official said.
Published - August 17, 2019 12:49 am IST
