Relief measures not interior houses, cry YSR Colony residents in Vijayawada

Residents in flood-hit Vijayawada colony struggle for essentials as relief measures fail to reach interior apartments.

Residents of YSR Colony in Vijayawada say that the relief measures being taken by the State government are not reaching those living in apartments located in the colony’s interior and on smaller lanes.

Around 4.30 p.m., Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu arrived there to review the flood situation in the colony.

When the floodwater first entered their colony eight days ago, the water level was eight feet, and it had receded to two feet by Sunday, September 8, they said.

On Sunday, many people came out of their houses for the first time in over a week to buy essentials since tractors, APSRTC buses, vans, and auto-rickshaws began plying.

Residents of blocks 209, 230, 226, 250, and others located in the interiors have complained that they have not received food, water, or medicines regularly like the others in the colony ever since the distribution began. Each block has 32 houses.

Gnaneswari of Block 230 said while some of them in the colony got to eat three meals a day, others were making do with just one. “Adults can somehow survive on porridge or whatever is available, but children cannot. The government is doing its part by distributing relief materials. But how many are getting those?” she asks.

Another woman, a mother of two, said she has been waiting on the main road, where the distribution has been happening, for three hours from 8 a.m. She returns with just one biryani packet, which should fill five stomachs.