Amaravati, Nov 24, : , Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy has urged Centre to grant an interim relief amounting to Rs 1,000 crore to the state.He also requested that a Central team be formed to assess the damage in flood-affected areas. The Chief Minister addressed letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, requesting the Central grant.
He asked the Centre to immediately assist the state in its hour of crisis, provide immediate relief to the families affected and restore normalcy through the repair and restoration of the damaged infrastructure.
He also asked the Prime Minister to immediately appoint an inter-ministerial Central team to assess the damages and losses caused heavy rains.
He said that the cost of crop damage and infrastructure loss is estimated at Rs 6,054.29 Crore.
According to the Chief Minister, depression in Bay of Bengal between November 13 and 20 caused heavy to very heavy rains to fall in the southern part of the state.
Four Rayalaseema districts and four south coast districts received 11.1cm of rainfall in the period, compared to the normal rainfall of 3 cm with a deviation of 255.5 percent.
The Chief Minister stated that heavy rains had impacted Tirumala, Tirumala, Nellore, Madanapalli and Rajampet towns, flooding low-lying areas, disrupting normal life.The extent of the flooding in the affected areas meant that 17 NDRF/SDRF teams had to be deployed, as well as two helicopters, in order to carry out search and rescue operations.
40 people, including a SDRF constable, died while on a search-and-rescue operation.25 others are still missing.Around 1,402 villages were affected in 196 mandals.Four towns were also affected.Reddy said that 324 relief camps were established to provide shelter for around 69,616 people.
Numerous highways, irrigation tanks, and canals were damaged or breached at various locations in Kadapa and Chittoor districts, Anantapur, Nellore, and Chittoor.
Heavy rains caused havoc in the areas, causing damage to thousands of acres of crops.
The Chief Minister stated that farmers were the worst affected as they lost harvestable crops.
Damage to agriculture crops such as paddy, bengalgram, cotton and black gram, as well as sugarcane, has reached an extent of 1.43 million hectares.42,299 ha of horticulture crops, including banana, papaya and turmeric, as well as vegetables, were damaged.
About 240.90 km length of road, 59.6 km pipelines, 2,764 street lights, 197.05 km open drainage, 71 municipal schools/buildings/community centres were also damaged.
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