Jagan reviews relief in flood-hit areas

Vijayawada, November 29: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy held a video conference with the district collectors of flood-hit areas and reviewed the progress of relief works.

During the meeting, the Chief Minister directed the officials to sanction new houses for completely damaged houses and provide temporary accommodation to the ones who lost houses, and ensure basic facilities at those places.

He said Rs 2,000 should be given to all the households who received essential commodities and directed the officials to be generous towards people's requests while touring flood-affected areas.

He said all the arrangements were made for the distribution of seeds through Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs). He said to take measures to ensure no leaks are there in ponds and interlink ponds and added that excess water in ponds should be diverted to canals. He said water cannot be stored as the Annamayya project was breached and directed the officials to make arrangements to ensure no shortage of drinking water in those villages and towns. He instructed the officials to carry out a social audit after the completion of crop enumeration.

The Chief Minister slammed Chandrababu Naidu for politicizing the flood situation for his political interests. He said the compensation was given to victims in one week while it used to take one month earlier and added that the input subsidy is being provided in the same season while it used to take one year in the past. He said while the extent of damage due to Hudud was Rs 22,000 crore, only Rs 550 crore of the central fund was given.

The Central Team

Earlier, the inter-ministerial central team, constituted to gauge the extent of flood damage in Andhra Pradesh, had met Chief Minister at the camp office and lauded him for the effective steps taken in flood-hit areas.

The Chief Minister urged the Central team to be more compassionate and humanitarian in the entire approach of assessing the damage. He said there is no escalation in the estimates and added that there was a robust model at the grass-root level for the estimation of flood losses. He said RBKs are present in every village, e-cropping is completed for every crop, a social audit is also done and physical and digital receipts for e cropping were given to every farmer and added that the damage is estimated at village level.

The Chief Minister said State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) has depleted COVID containment measures and urged the Central team for replenishment of Adhoc funds to SDRF. The Chief Minister said the suggestions of the Central team will be considered and necessary measures will be taken to control such disasters in the long run.

He said the state government is improving the canal system to discharge more water capacity and added that an automatic water gauging system is being planned. The State government has sought to relax the rules on paddy procurement and added to give relief in terms of moisture and other conditions as crops are damaged due to heavy rains.

Efforts lauded

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Advisor Kunal Satyarthi lauded the efforts of the officials of the state government emphasizing the dynamic, dedicated, and young team of officials who worked exceptionally well.

He said the YSR district has faced huge loss and added that livestock was dead, roads, buildings, and irrigation projects were damaged. He said that it was not a classical flood situation and the system was not ready to receive so much water and there were no adequate reservoirs and dams to regulate the water. He added that the existing dams were not designed for such huge inflows. He said the extent of damage is large at the location of breach of Annamayya project, some parts of Chittoor and Nellore.

Infrastructure and Agriculture loss is more in the YSR district and the floods damaged Bengal gram crop and water schemes badly. The drinking water supply system of the Annamayya project has severe damage, and bridges and roads were damaged leading to no connection to some villages.

He said the emergency services were restored immediately and added that district collectors have released funds immediately due to which the works were expedited.

He said 40 percent of damage is to roads, buildings, 32 percent to Agriculture and allied sectors, and 16 percent to irrigation and assured all sorts of possible help.