Vijayawada: The death toll due to heavy rains and floods has risen to 46 in Andhra Pradesh. of them, as many s 36 were from NTR district, where five persons died at Mogalrajapuram due to a landslide. Seven persons from Guntur district died, including a teacher and two students from a private school in Pedakakani mandal. They were washed away by flood waters in a rivulet when they were on their way from Uppalapadu to Namburu. Two deaths were reported from Eluru district and one from Palnadu district.
According to the status report on heavy rains and floods, released in the evening on Monday, agriculture crops suffered damage in 1.81 lakh hectares affecting 2.18 lakh farmers in 16 districts. Horticulture crops too suffered damage in 19,686 hectares, affecting 30,877 farmers.
Nearly 6.44 lakh people were affected in the heavy rains and floods. A total of 246 relief camps have been set up. About 48,528 affected persons have been accommodated in these camps while 344 pregnant women were shifted to some health centres.
The state government has identified the affected families and started distribution of essential commodities like 25kg of rice, one kg of red gram, one litre of oil, one kg of sugar, one kg of onion and one kg of potato. So far, 2.77 lakh families have been listed for supply the essential commodities in seven districts -- NTR, Guntur, Bapatla, Palnadu, Krishna, Eluru and West Godavari. Of them, essentials were given to 1.65 lakh families. The supply is yet to reach 1.11 lakh affected families.
A total of 50 teams including SDRF-22, NDRF-26 and Navy-2 have been deployed to the affected districts. Six choppers -- two from Navy and four from Air Force -- started airdropping food items and airlifting the stranded people from marooned areas.
Reports said 21 persons stranded in water have been airlifted and food items, water, medical kits, milk etc have been airdropped. Over 210 boats have been deployed to evacuate the people from inundated areas to safety, the status report said.