Kurnool flood: Crucial rail link ignored in sending relief

Udumula Sudhakar Reddy/Kurnool

The crucial rail link between Hyderabad and Kurnool that was restored on October 4th morning was ignored by the State government officials and didn’t use it to send the relief material and men through the trains.Experts now see this as blunder as several of the relief material was stranded on NH7 at Beechupally and officials who were using the choppers couldn’t make it in emergency situation.

Instead it was relief by NGOs and groups from Anantapur, Kadapa and Chittoor that actually saved Kurnool residents out of starvation.Railway officials at Kurnool said that there was no special relief van used to send material from Hyderabad and even they didn’t use luggage cabins of express and passenger trains moving towards Bangalore and Chennai via KurnoolAdditional DG (Law and Order) Mr A K Khan said ,”restoring road links takes time and railways doest it faster. We have been stressing on the use of trains to send the relief material.,”The rail link was also initially cut off at Tunagabadhra but it was restoredby 4th.Mr Govind Reddy of Red Cross says ,”they didn’t use railways which would have been faster and easier. The relief on road from Hyderabad didn’t reach this place so far. The officials immersed in planning of relief measures neglected the basics,”The restoration work of NH7 is still on and it would take another week days officials said.Meanwhile hundreds of passengers were walking all along the track of stretch of 10 km from Kurnool to Alampur to take a bus or auto at Alampur to reach their destinations as the road links were cut off.G Narendra Shastry a priest in Bala Tripuarasundari Ammavari Devasthanam at NR Peta says ,”The temple is in water still. I have sent my family to Dhone. As my brother at Raichur is in serious health condition I have to go there. So I am walking all along the track to reach Jogulamba junction in Alampur.On the other hand there was migration on large scale to Hyderabad from the surrounding villages of Kurnool.Mr C Mahesh a mason of Gondipalem says ,”my houses in submerge and everything is lost. So with my wife and son I am going to Hyderabad for work,”