Hyderabad rain rage: KCR government turns to divine for relief

The Chandrasekhar Rao government has also been distributing Rs 10,000 per affected family as a relief measure

Faced with the flood fury for over a week, the Telangana government has now turned to the divine offering gifts and praying for relief.

On Wednesday, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi ministers - Talasani Srinivas (fisheries, animal husbandry), Mahmood Ali (home), and Hyderabad mayor Bonthu Rammohan, deputy mayor Baba Fasiuddin have conducted a "Shanthi-pooja" to the River Musi beseeching the Gangamma to show pity on the city and calm down. A silk saree among other auspicious benefactions were made to Goddess Ganga (river/water) and special prayers were conducted at a temple in the old city. Later, a chadar (shawl) was offered at a dargah.

The river which was Hyderabad's lifeline during the Qutub Shahi and the Nizam rules was reduced to a large sewer due to the decades of mismanagement by the successive governments and rampant encroachments.

The incessant rain on Tuesday, October 13, has unleashed the Musi's wrath on the city's inhabitants. Several areas in and around Hyderabad recorded up to 32 cm rainfall on that day, breaching embankments of at least three lakes, swelling the river, and inundating about a quarter area of the city.

Tuesday was said to be the highest single-day precipitation since the 43 cm rainfall recorded on September 28, 1908, in the city.

The Wednesday veneration to Musi is said to be the first since 1908, offered by the state. Following widespread destruction and loss of human life in thousands in 1908, the Nizams later got the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs built upstream on the Musi and the embankments within the city were fortified.

Last week floods claimed 33 lives in Hyderabad and affected about 4 lakh families. The Chandrasekhar Rao government is distributing Rs 10,000 per affected family as a relief measure. Several colonies are still submerged in 3-4 feet deep water.

While the state suffered an estimated Rs 5,000 crore loss, the damage to the civic infrastructure alone in Hyderabad is Rs 670 crore.

Thousands of people in low lying areas especially in the South and Southeast parts of the city like Charminar, LB Nagar zones are spending sleepless nights with intermittent rains and more downpour in prediction till Thursday.

However, in the news that brings some respite, the well-marked low-pressure area over the west-central Bay of Bengal on Wednesday is very likely to move towards West Bengal-Bangladesh off the Odisha coast during the next two days.