Central teams meet AP CM after visiting cyclone, drought areas

Vijayawada: The two teams of central officials, which separately toured the Michaung cyclone-affected areas and studied the drought conditions in some districts, called on Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at his camp office here on Friday.

The CM told them that state government had taken necessary steps to shift people from low-lying areas to relief camps to prevent loss of life after the cyclone warnings had been received. However, the continuous rains had caused heavy loss of crops.

He said the list of farmers who suffered crop loss will be displayed at the village secretariats after examining the e-crop details. Likewise, names of missing persons in the cyclone will be included after proper verification and social audit.

Jagan Mohan Reddy told the central teams that the state government will extend financial help to farmers in a transparent manner. He asked the teams to ensure that the centre extends financial support to the state liberally.

The two teams apprised the Chief Minister of their findings during their tour of drought and cyclone-affected areas. They said due to timely measures taken by the government machinery, loss of life had been averted. The officials said they would submit the report on the loss caused by the cyclone and drought to the centre.

Members of the committee on drought told the CM that they had toured Anantapur, Chittoor, Kurnool, Nandyala, Satya Sai, Annamayya and NTR districts and spoken to farmers, besides observing drought-affected crops and water levels in reservoirs. They suggested that steps should be taken to ensure that farmers cultivate alternate commercial crops.

NIDM executive director Rajendra Ratnoo, Agriculture joint director Vikrant Singh, and DAFW joint secretary Pankaj Yadav were among those who called on Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Special AP chief secretaries G. Sai Prasad (Revenue and Disaster Management), Gopalakrishna Dwivedi (Agriculture), Y. Sri Lakshmi (MA&UD) and B. Rajasekhar (PR), principal secretary (Water Resources) Sasibhushan Kumar, transport secretary Pradyumna Kumar, special commissioner (Agriculture) Ch. Harikiran and Disaster Management director Ambedkar were among those present.