Hyderabad: The Centre on Tuesday released Rs.416.80 crore to Telangana from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and an advance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). This is part of Rs. 5,858.60 crore released by the Centre to the 14 flood-affected states as a share by the Union government.
The state government had placed the rain and flood damage at Rs.10,320 crore.
Officials sources said that what the Centre released on Tuesday was just its share from SDRF and advance from the NDRF and hoped to get more funds once central teams submit final report on flood damage.
According to a statement issued by the ministry of home affairs (MHA), poll-bound Maharashtra received the highest of Rs.1,492 crore and Andhra Pradesh, ruled by the NDA government, got Rs.1,036 crore.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, had told Central teams, which arrived in the state to assess the flood damage, on September 16 that the damage caused by the recent heavy rain and floods far exceeded initial estimates. He said the state had suffered losses amounting to Rs.10,320 crore, with further assessments still pending against the initial estimates of Rs.5,438 crore.
The damage includes the destruction of thousands of homes, extensive loss of crops across lakhs of acres, and infrastructure damage with roads, culverts, and lakes washed away in several areas. He also noted that many farmers have suffered irreparable losses due to the deposition of boulders, gravel, and mud in their crop fields.
The Central teams toured flood affected districts of Khammam, Mahabubabad and Suryapet for two days on September 11 and 12, to assess the flood damage.
Revanth Reddy had urged the Centre to provide immediate and unconditional financial assistance to Telangana, which has been severely affected by heavy rains and floods. He stressed the need for the relaxation of strict rules imposed by the Centre on the utilisation of disaster relief funds, particularly those under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
Revanth Reddy expressed concern that despite Telangana having Rs.1,350 crore available in the NDRF, the stringent conditions attached to accessing these funds meant that the state government was unable to utilise even a single rupee. He highlighted the inadequacy of current compensation rates, stating that if a kilometre of road was damaged, only Rs.1 lakh can be spent on repairs under the current guidelines.
The Centre is yet to address all these issues raised by CM.
On September 6, during a meeting with Union ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Bandi Sanjay at the Secretariat, Revanth Reddy had appealed to the Centre to extend flood relief to Telangana equivalent to Andhra Pradesh and also treat the flood related damages in TG on par with AP.
Revanth Reddy said that Khammam and Mahbubnagar, which border AP, had also suffered huge damage like in the neighbouring state and for that reason both states should be treated on similar lines while extending flood relief. The two union ministers also inspected the flood affected areas in the state in September.
