Hyderabad: Twenty farm workers were air-lifted to safety by the national disaster response force (NDRF), when they were trapped in the flood waters, after three gates of the Peddavagu project in Narayanapuram village of Aswaraopet mandal in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district on Thursday evening.
Due to heavy inflow of rainwater in Peddavagu project, the officials released the gates of the project downstream on Thursday. Unaware of the sudden release of water which soon inundated the downstream areas, the farm workers were caught in it.
Upon being directed by Agriculture minister Thummala Nageswara Rao and the chief minister’s office, the NDRF team reached the spot on two helicopters from Eluru in Andhra Pradesh, and evacuated all the twenty eight workers to safety.
Due to the release of water, four villages including Gummadivelli, Koyagudem, Kothur and Gajulapally were inundated. The residents of these villages were evacuated to temporary shelters on Thursday.
Chief secretary reviews the situation
Chief secretary Santhi Kumari took stock of the situation from Bhadradri Kothagudem district collector, SP, DGP, Irrigation principal secretary Rahul Bojja and others, to get apprised of the rains and the evacuation happening in the affected areas.
Rahul Bojja informed the chief secretary that due to 40,000 cusecs of inflows entering the project, the gates had to be opened. He told her that the inflows have subsided, and the chief engineer and other officials were in the area monitoring the situation there.
Santhi Kumari instructed the officials during the tele-conference to take steps to prevent the breach of minor irrigation tanks and canals in the area.
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