Hyderabad, October 30: With empty coffers staring it in its face, the State Government is left with no option but to seek Central aid to take up relief and rehabilitation activities in the flood-ravaged districts of the state.
The government is now pinning all its hopes on the report to be submitted by the Central team which visited the flood-affected areas and returned to Hyderabad today.
The inter-ministerial central team on floods, led by D Diptivilasa, today called on Chief Minister K Rosaiah and top officials.
Stating that they were moved by the devastation caused by the unprecedented floods, the team complimented the chief minister, ministers and officials for handling the flood situation in an exemplary manner. “The response of the State administration was timely, productive and unparalleled,’’ Diptivilasa said.
The flood management, which saved thousands of lives, was excellent, he remarked.
The team also praised the medical & health, and the animal husbandry departments for taking immediate steps to prevent outbreak of epidemics in the flood-affected areas. The team briefed the chief minister about the demands of the affected people.
The nine-member team visited about 35 villages in Kurnool, Mahaboobnagar, Krishna and Guntur districts.
Explaining that the unprecedented floods caused loss of life and livelihood to lakhs of people, the chief minister said the total loss/damage caused was estimated preliminarily at Rs 12,824.70 crore. He thanked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for immediately visiting the flood-affected areas and announcing an initial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore under the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) apart from treating the floods as a `national calamity’.
The State Government has already submitted an interim memorandum on floods/ heavy rains seeking an additional financial assistance of Rs 3,075.83 crore under the NCCF and another Rs 8,553.42 crore under the existing Central schemes.
“We request the Central team to take a humanitarian and liberal view of the sufferings of the people affected by floods while making recommendations to the Government of India for extending financial assistance under NCCF to the State,’’ Rosaiah said. He also sought higher input subsidy under the Calamity Relief Fund.
Earlier, several political parties submitted memoranda to the Central team at the Lake View Guest House.
A TDP delegation led by Nagam Janardhan Reddy wanted the Central team to enhance the compensation to the affected farmers of dry crops from Rs 2,000 per hectare to Rs 5,000 and providing seeds at 90 per cent subsidy to all rabi crops. BJP State president B Dattatreya and general secretary K Lakshman urged the Central team to extend liberal assistance to the State as it was reeling under drought and was badly affected by floods.
–Agencies