Irrigation staff digs up channel to divert inflows to Peruru tank

Tirupati: Finally, the officials woke up to take the required measures to divert the inflow into Peruru tank to stop the floodwaters flowing into a dozen localities in MR Palli area in the pilgrim city. Following the heavy rains last week, the tank, three km from the city was full resulting in the waters were let out, to save the tank from breaching, leading to the flooding of areas in the down reaches in the city including colonies in MR Palli which witnessed unprecedented inundation leaving large number of people living in the area in lurch.

The overflowing tank coupled with the downpour in the city played havoc in the down reaches leading the aggrieved making a hue and cry drawing the attention of authorities as well as leaders of political parties.

The authorities who were stirred to act to stop inflow into Perur tank to avoid the flooding of populous areas in Tirupati, inspected the entire area and also verified the records leading to finding of a channel originating at Pathakaluva passing through Goolapalli and joining Swarnamukhi near Ramanujapalli, in the down reaches.

But the channel over the years vanished with the farmers encroaching it completely to extend their fields covering the channel which was dug afresh, retrieving it for the diversion of Swarnamukhi channel water flowing into Peruru tank. First, the authorities temporarily stopped the flow of water into the Peruru tank by diverting its flow in the lower areas along the highway which saw the flood waters in MR Palli area almost receded on Wednesday.

Later, Irrigation department using JCB took up the digging of 3 km-long old channel on a war foot basis and it was almost complete. Irrigation Inspector Madhusudhan Rao informed The Hans India that the digging of channel was taken in such a manner so as to not disturb the houses constructed encroaching the channel.

Gollapalli MPTC V Madhava Reddy expressed happiness over the decision of officials in diverting Swarnamukhi river water from flowing into Peruru tank and also said the decision of officials saved people of many areas from inundation. "It was a great relief to the many localities," he said. Meanwhile, a Tirupati Corporation official admitted that it was due to the hue and cry of people of inundated area particularly Srikrishna Nagar, Saraswathi Nagar, Ullipattteda where many politicians, top officials of various departments, big businessmen are residing, the diversion of waters by retrieving the old channel materialised.

It may be noted that Peruru tank which had been overflowing due to Swarnamukhi inflow coupled with excess inflow of rainwater from other channels caused large scale inundation of many areas including

Haripuram Colony, Vidyanagar, part of Thummala Gunta, Mahila University area and from then down reaches including Srikrishana Nagar, Ullipatteda, Saraswathi Nagar, Vaikuntapuram arch and Gandhi Nagar.