10 piligrams from Gudivada feared washed away
Hyderabad: Ten pilgrims who left Gudiwada town on the Chardham yatra were reported missing. Their whereabouts were not known for the past 48 hours. They were feared drowned as the building wherein they were accommodated was one of the huge structures washed away in the flash floods.
Their mobile phones remained off and their relatives, despite their frantic efforts failed to reach out to them. An aged couple Puvvala Arjun and Sailakshmi was among those gone missing from 72 member party that set off on the pilgrimage trip. Of the 72 pilgrims from the town stuck in Uttarakhand the whereabouts of ten is not traceable.
Puvvula Arjun Rao (70) and his wife Puvvula Sailakshmi (60) were among the ten from Gudivada. Kith and kin of the ten persons express anguish stating that there were not even cell phone signals.
They expressed fear that the building where the ten have been staying might have been washed away in heavy floods. They said the others staying at a height of 50 ft from the building were safe, travel agent Vemuri Chittemma told over telephone from Uttarakhand.
She said her agency has been operating `yatra' specials for the last 30 years. On May 26, thirty pilgrims from Eluru, Kakinada, Gudivada, Putlacheruvu, Penamaluru along with her family members Kadiyala Veeramma, Ayyappa, K Malleswari, Veerakumari, Venkanna, Anushka, Shyam, and farm workers Krishna and Papa left for the tour to Uttarakhand.
She said the tour party had taken off from Annavaram. The party members had been in touch with their families while moving via Dwarapudi, Simhachalam, Arasavalli, Srikurmaram, Sakshigopalam, Puri, Bhuvaneshwar, Kolkata, Gaya, Kasi, Triveni Sangam, Ayodhya, Naimisharanyam, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Badari, Kedari and Gangotri.
Chittemma said the pilgrims had lost their belongings, including clothes, in the floods. They were able to converse only briefly as there was no facility to re-charge cell phones due to disruption of power supply. They are now in Gowrigundam. Some pilgrims had fallen sick. Many of them had to go without food for two days.
News Posted: 20 June, 2013
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