Telangana Flash Floods: Urban, Rural Electorate Unhappy With BRS

The recent heavy rain wreaked havoc and caused trouble to both the public and politicians alike in Telangana. The ruling BRS’ image took a beating with people in both the urban and rural areas facing inconvenience due to the excess rain that ultimately led to flash floods.

Over 18 people have reportedly lost their life in various rain-related incidents due to the downpour that lashed Telangana during the last week.

The damage due to flash floods is so much so that an inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) is scheduled to visit the state to assess the loss, Union Minister of Tourism G Kishan Reddy said.

The public in Padma Colony of Chaderghat, Nagole, Kodandaram Nagar and Saraswathi Nagar in Saroornagar, a few localities in Malakpet, LB Nagar and Dilsukhnagar in the city faulted the officials for failing to take necessary measures to avoid waterlogging and floating of vehicles in several areas. Office-goers and commuters faced tough time in reaching their destinations during both times in the day. The delayed movement of traffic due to snarls broke their backs so much so that they did not feel like venturing on to the roads the next day. Fluctuating power and outages further aggravated the situation.

“Our management made it mandatory to attend the office. Else, I would have opted to work from home. It was tedious to ride all through to the office in the traffic jam and with the downpour,” said a software professional travelling from Kukatpally to Madhapur.

The numerous videos showing the submerged roads and the hardship of the people in low-lying areas led to criticism of the BRS government for not improving the living conditions, since the flash floods hit the city last time in October 2020.

Meanwhile, the people in rural areas also had their own reasons to be unhappy with the government. With crops in numerous acres being damaged due to the floods, rivulets and streams overflowing causing damage to culverts, roads and bridges, villagers in several areas faced a very tough time.

While some complained of lack of relief operations from the government, a few others expressed unhappiness about the government’s non-chalant attitude towards their difficulties.

In the last decade, Hyderabad and the neighbouring areas have reported extreme rainfall spells between 15-24 centimetres in a single day on four occasions – July 2012, September 2016, September 2019 and October 2020.

Last time, the BRS government even announced some ex-gratia to those rendered shelterless and bereaved families of those deceased in the flash floods but this time, there has been no such initiative taken by the ruling dispensation, despite the opposition parties raising the issue several times.

In turn, the floods also led to inflation in the retail market with transportation of vegetables and other essentials getting disrupted due to inundated roads.

The unpreparedness of the BRS government for the heavy rains spell and the subsequent floods had led to severe criticism from both the opposition parties and the public.