Minister assures aid for submerged farmlands in Srikakulam district

Two days of torrential rain wreaked havoc in Srikakulam district, with over one lakh cusecs of water released from three major river projects, submerging nearly 30,000 acres of farmland and forcing the evacuation of over 12,000 people living in low-lying areas on Thursday morning.

A well-marked deep depression over the Bay of Bengal crossed the north Andhra Pradesh coast near Kalingapatnam in Srikakulam district during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. Although the situation is under control, paddy fields got damaged with the release of large quantities of water due to continuous inflows from the catchment areas of Nagavalli, Vamsadhara, and Bahuda rivers.

The irrigation officials released 66,900 cusecs of water from Narayanpur anicut of the Nagavali River on Thursday afternoon after receiving the same quantity of water from the upper region. As much as 41,425 cusecs of water had been discharged from the Gotta barrage constructed on the Vamsadhara River, while 35,656 cusecs of water from the Bahuda River project was released.

The discharge of water from these river projects has submerged 30,000 acres, damaging the crop in Burja, Amadalavalasa, Srikakulam, Narasannapeta, Polaki, Santabommali, and Kotabommali mandals. Minister for Agriculture K.

Atchannaidu visited the villages hit by floods and assured the farmers that the government will provide compensation for the crop loss due to floods. He said that enumeration would begin in a couple of days as the government will send various teams of agriculture officials to assess the damage in their respective areas.

Srikakulam Collector Swapnil Dinakar Pundkar and Superintendent of Police K.V. Maheswar Reddy visited flood-affected areas of Allena village of Burja mandal in the district. Both waded through the flooded streets and interacted with the villagers and said that the government had made arrangements for shelter and food for them for the next few days.

“With the collective efforts of the administration, the government had minimised the damage due to floods in the district,” Mr. Swapnil told The Hindu.