Mouli Mareedu: Varalakshmi Vratam hopes submerged in rain water

They wake up early in the morning, clean their homes before smearing themselves with turmeric paste and kumkum to perform Varalakshmi Vratam at the temple every year on this day.But this year, a grim reality awaited them. The locality of Madinaguda was submerged in flood water forcing its residents to stay indoors. “As I went down from my flat to visit the temple around 6 am, I saw rain water had reached the first floor of the apartment. I was unable to go out,’’ added N Santhakumari, a home-maker living in the Vaishnavi Apartments at Madinaguda.Similarly, 70 families staying in 20 apartments were forced to stay indoors in Madinaguda, Deepti Sree Nagar, Hafeezpet, and surrounding localities of Miyapur, as they were totally inundated with rain water with nearby tanks overflowing. As tank bunds have been breached by heavy rains since the past three days, overflowing water submerged the colonies since early morning on Friday.PV Krishna Rao, a resident of Yasodha Pearl told Expresso that as he went down to the basement to take out his car at 6.30 a.m, he found it overflowing with rain water.“I went out swimming on rain water to get a milk packet. After a few minutes, the entire locality was completely under water. I could not return home as the water force increased and I was unable to swim,” he said, as he sat near his apartment holding a milk packet.Most two-wheelers and fourwheelers parked in the basements of apartments were submerged.Residents in the localities had to call up their friends and relatives to know about the prevailing situation.“I came to know about it as my uncle called up in the morning and asked me to inform GHMC officials and police. After informing the local police, they refused to do anything so early in the morning. This is the first time I ahve seen a deluge totally inundating the locality,” complained S Kiran Kumar, busy enquiring about his relatives standing on the national highway at Deepti Sree Nagar.As soon as news broke out, electricity officials stopped power supply to at least 10 localities. GHMC officials also brought two proclainers to clear rain water by repairing underground drainage. They assured the locals they would bring back normalcy within two days.Meanwhile, a private cab in which five IT employees were travelling was washed away at Madhapur MMTS railway station bridge due to heavy rain water force coming from the nearby tanks. Kukatpally traffic police blocked the Kukatpally JNTU- HiTec city stretch as rain water overflowed on the streets near the Madhapur local train station. Traffic was diverted towards Hafeezpet.