Shivraj Chouhan Lauds AP for Using Drones for Flood Relief

Vijayawada: Expressing concern over the flood situation in Vijayawada, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has promised all support from the Centre to AP to tide over the crisis.

The Union minister arrived here on Thursday and inspected the affected areas, the Prakasam barrage and the breached portions of Budameru canal accompanied by the central minister of state for rural development Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, state minister Nara Lokesh and others.

The team waded through neck-deep water and interacted with the affected people. Chouhan also took a round of the photo exhibition on the floods arranged by the state government, which gave a pictorial description of the havoc.

Addressing the media, Chouhan lauded the state government for using drones for delivery of food and milk to the flood-hit and noted that this was done for the first time in such a situation in the country.

He also praised chief minister Chandrababu Naidu for working day and night to visit affected areas and provide relief.

The Union minister said, “Now, the biggest challenge is to deal with sanitation, cleaning up the mud in the houses and the other works to restore normalcy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes that serving the people is paying reverence to God. The Centre will extend all requisite support to AP to tide over the crisis.”

Chouhan alleged that the illegal mining carried out during the term of the YSR Congress government made Budameru canal suffer breaches. “That government also failed to pay premium for PM Fasal Bima Yojana, he said, and added that the TD-led state government would clear the dues and help the targeted beneficiaries to derive the benefit.

Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu felt the need to strengthen the Prakasam barrage. It was designed to withstand flood discharge at 15 lakh cusecs, he said, and added that nearly 11.43 lakh cusecs were discharged at the barrage recently. As all the upstream projects like Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar and Pulichintala received huge inflow of water, it resulted in the arrival of a huge quantum of water at the Prakasam barrage, he noted.

Naidu said that as Vijayawada received 40 cm rainfall in two days, it caused the Budameru canal problems. It was having a capacity of 7,500-10,000 cusecs but received an inflow of 35,000 cusecs, resulting in the breaches at three places. The flash floods caused devastation to the city.

The CM said the Indian Army was expected to arrive shortly with better equipment to plug the breaches to the Budameru canal and address the inundation in and around the city.