Special treatment, assistance needed for state: CM to Central team

The Inter-Ministerial Central Team which toured and studied the flood-affected areas which had witnessed heavy rains from June 1 to  September 30, 2010, on Thursday called on Chief Minister Rosaiah at the  Camp Office.

The team positively responded to the demands of the State for Central assistance. The team led by Union Ministry of Home Affairs Joint Secretary RR Jha, explained to the Chief Minister about the damages caused in these areas in the meeting, before he left for the aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of coastal Andhra districts. 

The Chief Minister told the Central team that the State has been facing the wrath of heavy rains since the last many months. Heavy rains have been battering the State with excess of North West monsoon and now North East monsoon.

He said the Laila cyclone also caused heavy damages in the State. He said the damages have been very heavy and crop damages have been near colossal. Hence he wanted Special treatment and Assistance to the State.

"In fact, I requested the Prime Minister to continue your tour so that you can study the damages following very heavy rains in the last four days in the districts of East and West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Krishna, Nellore etc.

The Chief Minister said he asked all the departments concerned in the State to give a detailed report about the damages and work-wise, village-wise details of the relief required and taken up and also list of the affected localities, people etc. for sanctioning of immediate Central relief. The Chief Minister told the Central team that Andhra Pradesh was expecting a bumper crop this year due to very good monsoon but the recent rains shattered the hopes and hence the State needs special Central assistance. 

Mr Rosaiah brought to the notice of the Central team that in addition to these damages due to heavy rains, yet another "super cyclone" has been formed and moving from Andamans towards South Andhra Pradesh and may cross Andhra coast by Sunday.

Meanwhile a detailed Memorandum on Heavy Rains and Floods in Andhra Pradesh (June 1, 2010 to September, 30 2010, were submitted to Government of India requesting for sanction of Rs 1154.16 crore for immediate temporary restoration of damages caused to the public infrastructure under NCCF/CRF and an amount of Rs 4068.28 crore for permanent restoration of damages caused to public Infrastructure, totalling an amount of Rs 5222.44 crore.

Following the submission of the memorandum, the Government of India deputed an Inter-Ministerial Central Team for an on-the spot assessment of the damage and the admissibility of such supplemental Central assistance in the wake of Heavy rains/Floods in Andhra Pradesh during monsoon 2010.

The Inter-Ministerial Central Team consisting of 8 members, has been divided into two teams.

Team-I comprising Mr Jha, Balakrishna, Srikant and Manoharan toured Guntur district on November 2 and West Godavari on  November 3.

Team-II comprising Raj Pal Singh, Deputy Advisor, Planning Commission; A Parmesham, AD James and BP Nagar toured Adilabad district on  November 2,  and  Karimnagar on November 3.

Chief Secretary SV Prasad, Principal Secretary to CM, Sam Bob, Commissioner, Disaster Management, T Radha and members of the Central team attended the meeting.