A rivulet has its own way every monsoon

HYDERABAD: The Budameru is the sorrow of this city on the Krishna.It overflows every rainy season and causes misery to the residents of low-lying localities on its banks.Cynical civic officials blame the residents themselves: they ought not have encroached on the land.It’s not that the city’s planners did not cater for the rainy season.They built a diversion channel from the Velagaleru regulator to take the flood water from the Budameru to the Krishna.But it’s the inflows from higher regions which flood the low-lying areas in the city.The main culprits are weed proliferation in the Budameru passage to Kolleru and encroachment of its banks.This is a recurring problem for Vijayawada, and several governments promised to do something about it.The last person to do so was chief miniser Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and the state government prepared an estimte to modernise the Budameru diversion scheme.Cost: Rs 116 crore.But tenders for the contract are gathering dust in the government.Meanwhile, the Budameru brings misery to villages and colonies on its banks every rainy season.When the last Great Deluge was seen in 2005, many thousands had to flee their homes, and the floods did not recede for 10 days.Boats became the main form of commuter transport during that great flood.For the past one week, the residents of New Rajarajeswaripet, majority of them dailywagers have been cut off from the rest of the city because the Budameru has been acting up again.For those with a pressing need to go to work, there is a roundabout route to the city through Old Rajarajeswaripet and Yerrakatta.Rajarajeswaripet resident Lakshmikantamma said she has not been able to send her children to school for all of last week because the school buses can’t come into the locality until the Budameru goes back.Another resident, Manikyamma, complained, “Even milk and vegetable vendors can’t come into this area when the Budameru floods.” Every year police watch round-the-clock a causeway overrun by the Budameru.Five years ago, a family of five was washed away while crossing the Budameru.Badgered by the people, Krishna collector S A M Rizvi directed irrigation officials to clear the weeds in the Budameru last week to let the flood water recede.However, the larger problem is the encroachment of land that rightfully belongs to the Budameru.The city has no answer to it.