Central team arrives in Andhra Pradesh to assess flood damage

Vijayawada: An inter-ministerial central team comprising six members has started inspecting the flood-hit areas of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday to assess the extent of loss to crops and properties.

Three of its members visited Guntur and Bapatla districts while the other three moved around Krishna district.

The team members include: Union home joint secretary Anil Subrahmanyam, agriculture welfare director (Maharashtra) AL Wagmer, surface transport chief engineer Rakesh Kumar (Vijayawada), finance consultant RB Koul (New Delhi) rural development deputy secretary Pradeep Kumar, scientist of the national remote sensing centre and ISRO, SVSP Sarma.

AP disaster management special chief secretary RP Sisodia gave a presentation to the team, explaining about the extent of loss to the crops and infrastructure. The loss due to the current spell of rains and floods has been estimated at `6,882 crore, he said.

He said that it would require Rs 750 crore for rehabilitation, Rs 2165 crore for roads and buildings, Rs 1569 crore for water resources, Rs 1,160 crore for rural development and panchayat raj, Rs 12 crore for animal husbandry, Rs 158 crore for fisheries, Rs 301 crore for agriculture, Rs 40 crore for horticulture, Rs 481crore for energy, Rs 76 crore for rural water supply, Rs 168 crore for panchayat raj roads and Rs 2 crore for fire services department.

He explained the kind of relief taken up while shifting the affected people to relief centres, and the provision for food, milk, water etc made for the affected areas.

Seven districts -- West Godavari, Eluru, Krishna, NTR, Guntur, Bapatla and Palnadu – bore the brunt of the rain and flood havoc while the Budameru canal suffered breaches at three places and inundated several low-lying areas in Vijayawada, the central team was told.