Naidu urges Jagan to come out in support of Godavari flood victims

TDP president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday appealed to the Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy government to extend immediate relief and rehabilitation measures for the victims of floods in the Godavari river. Naidu said that hundreds of villages were facing hardships in the low-lying areas. Paddy, cotton and other crops were completely destroyed in the flood. Lack of power supply was another problem that cropped up due to the subsequent waterlogging.

In a letter to the Chief Minister, the TDP chief pointed out that Godavari was already flowing well above the danger mark for the past three days and the heavy rainfall caused widespread damage to a population already facing hardships due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Naidu said that the merged mandals were marooned in flood waters. The intensity of flood was rising with each passing hour. The general life was paralysed in villages like Kunavaram, VR Puram, Chintooru and Yatapaka mandals which were cut off from the rest of the district. Crops are submerged under water at Kukunuru, Velerupadu and Burgumpadu mandals. The island villages in Konaseema and Manyaseema areas were facing great problems. Many villages were marooned in Mummidivaram and P Gannavaram assembly constituencies. Thousands of houses were submerged in Devipatnam mandal.

As per reports, paddy crop was submerged in over 1,460 hectares in 65 villages in East Godavari district. Cotton was submerged in 225 hectares in 22 villages and horticulture crops in 282 hectares. Thousands of people became homeless in West Godavari. The TDP chief urged for shifting marooned villagers to relief camps where drinking water, food and power supply should be provided and also urged for compensation to the farmers for loss of their crops.