Telangana people struggle after Godavari deluge
Like Noah’s deluge, the Godavari floods ravaged Telangana last week. Waters are receding now, leaving a trail of destruction and human agony. The discharge at Bhadrachalam was unprecedented, ranging between 25 lakh and 30 lakh cusecs for four to five days. The water level remained at 71.3 ft, much above the final flood warning of 53 ft. The temple town of Bhadrachalam and several villages in the Bhadradri Kothagudem district bore the brunt. The authorities shifted nearly 25,000 people living in low-lying areas to safer places in the district. Elsewhere in Telangana too, the rains and the floods wreaked havoc in the erstwhile districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, and Warangal. The state witnessed Godavari floods of this intensity for the first time since 1986.
Parts of Bhadrachalam town are still submerged and people face knee-deep water in places. Many residents erected make-shift shelters on the rooftops of their homes. Unscrupulous elements are taking advantage of the situation, by jacking up the prices of essential commodities. An LPG cylinder is selling at `2,000 or more. People have rice the government supplied, but they cannot cook unless they shell out the money for gas. The Ram Temple, one of the holiest shrines in the country, is still surrounded by water.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao blamed a cloudburst for the floods that “could have been triggered by foreign hands inimical to the interests of the nation” without any empirical evidence. He also said the worst is over “because of God’s grace”—which speaks a lot about the need for foolproof flood management. The state cannot afford the luxury of forgetting the pain and must act in advance in future, for instance, by constructing a project at Kupti to prevent flooding of the Kadem project downstream in the Adilabad district. In the recent floods, water overflowed the Kadem project even though all its 17 gates were opened, presenting a terrifying sight. In this hour of crisis, the centre, putting aside politics, should come forward with liberal assistance to the state. The centre and the state should jointly evolve flood-control methods for the next monsoon season.