When Penna brought misery
The Hindu
Thousands of people in Nellore district have lost all their belongings as floodwater inundated their homes
Sd. Rasheed, a resident of Bhagat Singh Colony, his wife and two children were having dinner as usual on the fateful Saturday (November 20) when flood waters started entering his house all of a sudden. They ran out of the house to safety as rainwater engulfed his house in no time in the wake of a record discharge of 5.50 lakh cusecs into the Penna river downstream from the Somasila reservoir.
When Mr. Rasheed and his family members returned home from the relief camp after floods receded they were shocked to find household articles and electrical appliances unfit for use. “Now I am clueless on running the family with floodwater taking away everything I had in my home,” he laments. About one lakh people in the district, including more than 23,000 living in the low-lying areas like Venkateswarapuram, Janardhan Reddy Colony and Jayalalitha Nagar in Nellore city, had a harrowing experience in the wake of record inflows into the Somasila reservoir.
More than 2.6 lakh village and ward volunteers in Andhra Pradesh, once celebrated as the government’s grassroots champions for their crucial role in implementing welfare schemes, are now in a dilemma after learning that their tenure has not been renewed after August 2023 even though they have been paid honoraria till June 2024. Disowned by both YSRCP, which was in power when they were appointed, and the current ruling TDP, which made a poll promise to double their pay, these former volunteers are ruing the day they signed up for the role which they don’t know if even still exists