The Chief Minister Mr. N Kiran Kumar Reddy today announced that Rs.2 lakhs (Rs.1.5 lakhs immediately and Rs.50,000 under Aapatbandhu) will be paid to the next of kin of those died in the unseasonal heavy rains and hailstorm which lashed some of the districts in the State for the last two days.
He also said that compensation as per norms and houses under IAY will be provided to those who lost their houses. The Chief Minister instructed officials for time-bound, accurate and immediate enumeration of losses.
The Chief Minister today held a review meeting on the rains and hailstorm that lashed some of the districts with ministers and officials at the Secretariat.
The meeting also decided in principle to go in for market intervention and purchase the de-colored chillies, turmeric, cotton and Bengalgram etc after correct enumeration. The Chief Minister directed the officials of Agriculture, Horticulture, Revenue and Marketing to complete the enumeration of the damaged and de-colored crops in coordination with the District Collectors under a time-frame and send the reports in a week’s time.
The Chief Minister also directed the Chief Secretary to hold a video conference with the District Collectors and other officials of the affected districts positively tomorrow, February 19.
Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, MA&UD Minister M Maheedhra Reddy, Chief Secretary Minnie Mathew, Commissioner, Disaster Mangement, T Radha, Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Anil C Puneetha, Principal Secretary, Finance, D Sambasiva rao, Commissioner, Agriculture, Madhusudan Rao, Commissioner, Marketing, Venkatram Reddy, Joint Commissioner, Horticulture, Jaganmohan Rao, Director, IMD, Sudhakar Rao, Principal Secretary to CM, Binoy Kumar, Secretary to CM K S Jawahar Reddy, Special Secretary to CM S S Rawat, Additional Secretary to CM, N Sreedhar and other officials attended the meeting.
The Chief Minister also directed the IMD officials and Disaster Management to evolve a proper and better mechanism to provide as far as possible accurate information about such un-seasonal rains and hailstorms to alert the farmers and others. He told them that it is important that the farmers should be alerted in advance as far as possible, particularly during the crop cutting time.
Officials explained to the Chief Minister that 18 people were killed (13 due to thunder bolt, 3 due to electrical shock and 2 due to falling of house-walls) during the un-seasonal rains and thunderstorm in 9 districts while according to a preliminary estimate, crops in 2.48 lakh hectares (agriculture and horticulture crops put together) were affected, 1149 houses were partly or fully damaged. They said the State received 22.1 mm rainfall on February 17.
–Agencies