Central team begins visit of flood-hit districts in Andhra

An inter-ministerial team from the Central government on Thursday began its visit of the flood-affected districts in Andhra Pradesh. The team headed by Sanjeev Kumar Jindal visited Vijayawada, the worst affected place, to estimate the losses and destruction, said an official press release. The Central team visited the State Emergency Operations Centre in the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) office in Tadepalli, where officials explained about the torrential rains and floods.

Later, the officials also visited Prakasam Barrage, which was recently hit by three large drifting boats, damaging a concrete beam. As the flood waters began to recede at many places here, personnel of the Vijayawada civic body are busily engaged in sanitation work and also restoring water supply, an official said on Thursday.

However, Vijayawada Municipal Commissioner HM Dhyanachandra said people must refrain from drinking the restored municipal tap water at the moment as it was not in a potable. "Today, we are focusing on municipal water resumption and sanitation.

By today evening, the water supply will be restored. But they (people) cannot drink water because there will be a lot of silting," Dhyanachandra told PTI. He said the civic body will launch a campaign to dissuade people from drinking tap water. On Wednesday, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said water supplied by the municipality should not be used for the first two days at least as it has to be tested for quality, considering its muddied nature due to the unprecedented deluge