A journalist working in Telangana was washed away in Telangana’s Jagtial district amid heavy rains that have been lashing the area. Zameer, a reporter working with the Telugu news channel NTV, had gone to Bornapalli village in Raikal mandal to report on nine farm labourers who were trapped in the village as waters of the Godavari rose.
When the gates of the Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) reservoir on the Godavari river were lifted, nine labourers of Bornapalli found themselves stuck and stranded in the middle of the river flow. The nine people had sent out an SOS selfie video to their families. Zameer had gone to cover the rescue operation.
The incident took place when Zameer and another person named Syed Riyaz Ali were returning to Jagtial from the village. They were travelling in a Swift Dzire car and had reached Ramojipet village when they took a shortcut off the main road. However, while they were trying to cross a flooded road between Ramojipet and Bhupathipur in Raikal mandal, their car was washed away by the floodwaters.
Local residents who saw their car getting washed away tried to rescue them. While Syed Riyaz Ali was pulled to safety, Zameer went missing. A search operation is underway to find the journalist. The nine labourers, meanwhile, were rescued by the NDRF.
Jagtial district has been receiving heavy to very heavy rainfall over the past two days, and more rainfall has been predicted for the district as well as other parts of the state. An orange warning is in place for several districts, including Adilabad, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Mancherial, Medak, Nizamabad, and others.
A couple of days ago, with the IMD issuing a heavy rain warning, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had directed ministers, MLAs and officials to be on alert and be available. KCR had held a meeting with ministers and officials and spoke to others in the rain-hit areas on the situation arising out of heavy downpour in the state, an official release said Monday night. The government machinery should be ready to deal with any situation, he said.
He had directed the irrigation department officials to discharge the Godavari flood waters reaching SRSP and other reservoirs following incessant rainfall in neighbouring Maharashtra and the catchment areas in Telangana. He also asked the Chief Secretary to keep NDRF and other rescue and relief teams ready, besides helicopters, to help people in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and also other places where the Godavari river flows.
With PTI inputs