Govt. tackled flood situation well, says Jagan

Vijayawada AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday said the State Government has been taking all the relief and rescue measures without lapses and provided compensation to affected families in the floods within one week of the calamity while the Opposition is trying to politicize the issue.

The Chief Minister told the House that Kadapa, Chittoor, Anantapur and Nellore districts were badly affected by heavy rains and floods like never before, yet the Opposition parties are trying to politicise the issue and raise objections for not visiting the flood-hit areas.

The Chief Minister explained that he very much wanted to visit the affected districts, but the senior officials negated, as it could hamper the relief works since the rescue operations are need of the hour. He stated that an aerial survey was done. Relief works are being constantly reviewed and assured to personally visit the flood-affected areas.

Responding to the Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu's remarks of 'CM will come in the air, go in the air,' he said that it is not sensible to make such harsh statements for a leader with 40 years experience.

The Chief Minister said that the flash flood was caused due to unprecedented heavy rains in a short span of time, which led to the flooding of villages downstream of Pincha and Annamayya reservoirs on Cheyyeru following a breach to its bund and stated the government is not hiding the human loss or property loss. Elaborating the nature's fury, he explained that at 8.30 am on November 18, the Pincha project had inflows of just 3,845 cusecs and by 8.30 pm, they increased to 90,464 cusecs. Right from 8 am, almost 51 mandals of Kadapa district received an average rainfall of 10.7 cm, and heavy rains lashed Seshachalam Hills in Tirupati and other parts of Chittoor district, which led to heavy inflows at Cheyyeru.

As the discharge capacity of Pincha is only 58,000 cusecs and the inflows are over 1.38 lakh cusecs, there occurred a breach at Pincha, where all the water gushed downstream to Annamayya project.

By the wee hours of November 19, the inflows to Annamayya reservoir crossed 3.2 lakh cusecs, while its discharge capacity was only 2.17 lakh cusecs, which resulted in a breach to the project, causing unfortunate damage. He said that the officials have alerted the villages and immediately taken over the rescue operations by shifting 400 families to safe places and providing shelter to 900 people in relief camps, saving hundreds of people with their efforts.