The amount of water being released reduced to 4.14 cusecs

Despite the reduction in outflow from Basavasagar Reservoir (Narayanpur Dam) located on the border of Raichur and Yadgir districts, people living in villages on the banks of the Krishna in Raichur district continued to be anxious on Thursday.

According to the district administration, the amount of water being released from the reservoir into the river course reduced to 4.14 lakh cusecs on Thursday from 4.61 lakh recorded the previous night. However, bridges across the Krishna near Huvinahedagi and Sheelahalli and the barrage near Gurjapur remained inundated cutting off road connectivity to Kalaburagi.

Efforts to rescue people stranded on the islands formed by divergence and convergence of the Krishna waters in Raichur and Lingsugur taluks continued. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel’s attempt to cross the raging river through boats to reach six people trapped on Karakalagaddi island in Lingsugur taluk went in vain due to high currents.

The stranded people, on the other hand, expressed their reluctance over phone, as usual, to come out of the island as they felt safe there. The district administration, yet, continued its efforts to persuade them to move out of the island.

On earlier occasions too, residents have refused to move out of the island whenever district administration wanted to rescue them following the release of large quantity of water from the dam as they [residents] felt safe due to the higher altitude of the island.

In addition to the relief camp opened at Yaragodi village in Lingsugur taluk, the administration opened two more relief camps at Gurjapur in Raichur taluk and Anjala in Deodurg taluk.

Raichur Lok Sabha Constituency member Raja Amareshwar Naik, Raichur Rural MLA Basavanagouda Daddal and other people’s representatives and officers supervised the rescue and relief operations.