HYDERABAD: A 50-year-old woman collapsed and died, reportedly of asphyxiation, while waiting outside a MeeSeva Centre at Golconda on Wednesday to avail the Rs 10,000 flood aid even as police lathicharged some applicants in some areas as serpentine queues caused traffic snarls in the city.
Police said the woman, Munawarunnissa, a resident of Hakeempet area in Golconda, was standing in a queue to submit an application for the relief at MeeSeva Centre near Galaxy theatre at Tolichowki when she complained of breathlessness.
She stood for almost three hours in the queue and then suddenly collapsed, witnesses said. Her husband, Mastan, rushed her to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead. “I rue why I sent her. She was insisting on doing it for the family. We lost so much during the floods,” Mastan reportedly told police.
According to doctors, the woman suffocated and collapsed, resulting in her instantaneous death. “We have not issued any FIR since the kin of the woman did not file a complaint. Her body was shifted to her residence for the funeral,” Golconda inspector K Chandra Shekar Reddy.
Heavy rush outside MeeSeva centres caused traffic snarls in many areas, but the situation went out of hand at Nacharam when hundreds of protesters blocked roads to protest delays in scrutinizing documents and clearing applications.
MeeSeva centres at Begumpet and Khairatabad too witnessed long queues, hampering movement of vehicles.
In front of MeeSeva centre at Tappachabutra , policemen resorted to mild baton charge to ensure people stood in a proper queue as hundreds of people gathered from early morning and were later dispersed after State Election Commission order stopped the process. In October, floods inundated many areas of Hyderabad, and the government decided to provide Rs 10,000 for every flood-hit family. Three days ago, the government decided to use MeeSeva centres for receiving applications. Later in the evening, the TRS government said the flood aid disbursal work would be completed after GHMC polls.