Hyderabad, Oct 13 : The Andhra Pradesh High Court Tuesday, on a public interest litigation, asked the state government why had it failed to prevent floods in the Krishna river despite warning by the Central Water Commission.

A division bench of the high court, issuing a notice, directed the state government to file its response in two weeks, detailing the action taken against officials who allegedly failed to prevent floods by acting on the Central Water Commission warning.

Filing the PIL, lawyer Chandrasekhar Reddy sought from the court directions to the government to compensate entire losses of the people due to floods.

Reddy claimed that the state officials failed to take precautions by releasing downstream water from the Srisailam dam across the Krishna river though the water commission had written a letter warning of floods. He also sought orders for suspension of the superintendent engineer of the Srisailam dam.

Central Water Commission chairman Arun Kumar Bajaj has told a section of media that the state was warned about floods 26 hours in advance and that the authorities should have released water from the Srisailam dam to prevent floods. However, the state government has claimed that it had not received any warning from the commission.

The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has also demanded that the state government take action against the guilty officials. TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu blamed Minister for Major Irrigation Ponnala Lakshmaiah for the floods, billed as the worst in
100 years.

The PIL also questioned the government order (number 171) raising the full reservoir level at the Srisailam dam from 834 to 854 feet. The petitioner argued that the government order was issued Sep 28, 2004, without taking the opinion of the experts.

Dealing with another PIL, the high court Monday asked the central and the state governments to inform it in 10 days about the measures taken so far to provide relief and rehabilitation to the people in the flood-affected areas.

The week-long floods in the Krishna river and its tributaries early this month inundated 500 villages and towns like Kurnool, Nandyal, Mantralayam, Alampur, Repalle and parts of Vijayawada city, killing 65 people, rendering half a million people homeless, and damaging public infrastructure and crops in five districts. (IANS)