Several parts of Telangana continue to receive heavy rains; Army and NDRF teams moved in for relief work

Several parts of the Telangana continued to receive heavy rains while relief operations picked up momentum in Hyderabad following teams of Army and NDRF moved in. The Indian Air Force has also been kept standby to assist the civil administration. Three Chetak Helicopters of the IAF attempted in vain to rescue over 20 civilians stranded in the flood water at Eadupayala village in Medak district. Though two rescue attempts have been made, they could not yield results due to heavy rain. However, the IAF in a release said, further attempts will be made tomorrow morning. Swollen streams and rivulets have inundated hundreds of habitations and caused damage especially to roads in the state. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Chandrasekhara Rao directed the district administration of five districts that are on the banks of River Godavari to be on high alert as floods expected in the river with heavy rainfall in the upper catchment areas. Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad after holding a high level review meeting, he asked the administrations of Adilabad, Nizamabad, Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam districts to be ready for any eventuality. However, he asked people of Telangana not to panic as relief measures are being taken. He asked the officials to prepare a detailed report over damages and the same will be presented to the centre for disaster relief assistance. AIR correspondent's report:- " Heavy rains continue to batter Telangana putting the state administration on toes not to leave any stone unturned in providing relief to the rain affected people. After the teams of Army and NDRF entered, the relief operations have picked up momentum. Food and water are being distributed in a number of residential colonies that are inundated for the past four days in and around Hyderabad. About 4 thousand people from low lying areas are taking shelter in the relief camps. Meanwhile Chief Minister Chandrasekhara Rao who held a high level review meeting, underlined the need for taking long term measures to avert this type of disasters. He informed that Hyderabad city received 448 per cent more rain than the normal 84 mille metres during the month of September. He attributed the cause for flooding to around 28000 illegal constructions on various storm water drains, on which he assured that a drive to remove all illegal constructions will be taken up soon. Meanwhile, all the project reservoirs in the state across rivers Krishna and Godavari are filled almost to their full capacity after about a decade."