Govt. will bring new legislation for removal of Encroachments along water bodies if required, says Minister Narayana 

Government committed to removing encroachments along water bodies to prevent flooding, with special legislation if needed.

Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana said the government was committed to removing encroachments along the course of Budameru and other water bodies and to bring about special legislation for it if the situation warranted, keeping in view the need to curb in future the menace of flooding like the one that just battered Vijayawada city for close to ten days. 

Speaking to media persons on Tuesday (September 10, 2024) evening, Mr. Narayana said the government would first undertake a comprehensive survey of irrigation canals and drains and then decide how to go about ridding them of encroachments. 

He said the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu already instructed officials of the Water Resources Department to prepare proposals for the necessary works.

The government could no longer take the prospect of such massive floods wreaking havoc again for granted as they would cause large-scale devastation and kill several people. A lesson was to be learnt from the disaster that happened in NTR District due to extremely heavy rains not seen in as many as 200 years. 

Of the 64 divisions in Vijayawada city, 32 were inundated and the flood water rose to 10 feet at some places. The discharge of 11.43 lakh Cusecs from Prakasam barrage against its designed capacity of 12 lakh Cusecs has in fact set the alarm bells ringing. 

Mr. Narayana said special teams were conducting enumeration of the damages in the flood-affected areas and no affected household would be left out of it.

“The CM continued to closely follow up the flood relief operations, and the water that stagnated in 26 divisions has been drained out and cleaning up gained pace as about 10,000 sanitation workers were pressed into service. Steps were taken to prevent the outbreak of fevers in the wake of the floods,” Mr. Narayana added.