Residents of Ajit Singh Nagar carrying water bottles and other relief material through a flooded road in Vijayawada on Monday.
| Photo Credit: GIRI KVS
A stampede-like situation prevailed on the Ajith Singh Nagar flyover, the road that connects the submerged colonies in the Central Assembly constituency to the other part of Vijayawada, as hundreds of distraught people scrambled to get food, milk and water being distributed free of charge there.
They had to wade through floodwater for at least a kilometre to reach the flyover, from where packets of sambar rice, butter milk, milk and water were being loaded on to boats to supply to the inundated colonies that include Vambay Colony, Ajith Singh Nagar, New Rajarajeswari Peta, Rajeev Nagar, and HUDA Colony, among others.
The flyover, crowded with ambulances (not more than four), trucks that supplied food, relief material, NDRF buses, vehicles of officials and boats, represented a chaotic place with people running helter-skelter.
The people who waited for 24 hours for help and still did not receive any, had to come all the way through shoulder-deep water to the flyover to take back home something to eat. A push and shove ensued as a group of people waited to catch food packets being thrown by a man on a truck. Some people also complained that the sambar rice was stale, and returned with only butter milk packets.
Stranded and worried
The Central constituency is home to daily wagers, many of whom leave for work early in the morning to the main city. “We left for work at the bus stand at 6.30 a.m., as usual, on Sunday. Around 10 a.m., I received a call from my husband who, in between sobs, said the house is submerged. I ran back here, and started going towards the house in shoulder-deep water, and got pulled away by the water current. A few youth helped me and advised me to not go ahead. Since then, I could not speak with my husband since I lost my phone,” said Sarojini, a 55-year-old woman, a cleaner.
Seated beside her was another woman, who too was worried to even speak. Her three children, all aged below 10, were at home with their grandmother. But she could not go there. Like them, at least 15 people had been taking shelter near a restaurant since yesterday (Sunday) morning. Some of them did not sleep, while others slept on the stairs.
Hundreds of people were trying in vain to go back to their houses, which were inundated after they left for work. On the other side were people stuck inside their houses without access to food or water, forcing elderly persons and women, with toddlers in arms, walk to the flyover themselves. Men carried cartons of butter milk boxes, each weighing 7-8 kg, on their head for their families.
A woman, who underwent a caesarean delivery just three days back, had to walk a kilometre from her house to the flyover, and another km to the other end of the flyover to find an ambulance. A volunteer carried the infant. There was no medical camp nearby to help those in need.
‘Govt. failure’
“It is a failure of the government. They did not alert us before releasing water, and there is no preparedness on their part later too. We have waited in vain to get some help for 24 hours. Why could not they arrange boats?” said a person holding a position in one of the ruling coalition parties, whose house in Ajith Singh Nagar was inundated. Three two-wheelers, a car, and furniture were damaged while documents and jewellery were washed away, he said.
Meanwhile, responding to their complaints, the NDRF personnel stationed on the flyover said the submerged area was too big to be covered in a day. “We are trying our best. We cannot reach every colony in a day and it will take time,” they said, adding that they had sent 20 boats, in addition to the SDRF’s boats and local ones.
