Kurnool: Now flooded with garbage as well

Hyderabad: For five days last week, Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh was cut off from Hyderabad as the National Highway connecting the two cities breached at several places following the floods. A visit to Kurnool now is a rude shock for outsiders. For those who call it home, disbelief hangs heavy in the air.

Ramakrishna Rao has lived in Kurnool for the last 45 years. "There is garbage in the street outside our homes. The water does not flow out either since they are not making any arrangements for the outlet," he says.

Every street, every bylane in Kurnool, echoes the same anger and disillusionment. "We survived the floods. Now how are we going to survive this situation?" asks another resident.

The thick deposit of black cotton soil from Tungabhadra river, which covers the streets along with the garbage, has made the clean-up operation more difficult.

"Eighty thousand tractor loads of garbage has to be cleared from Kurnool. The tractors government has provided is around 200. So that they have to increase," gauges : T.G.Venkatesh, Kurnool MLA.

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Kurnool is no small town. Till 1956, it was the capital of the then Andhra state. Amid the squalor and the stench, that past glory seems implausible - as if its history has been washed away along with the floods that tore their way through this part of the South.