Hyderabad, November 03: Torrential rains triggered by a depression in the Bay of Bengal and aided by the north-east monsoon wreaked havoc in seven coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh claiming at least 20 lives so far besides shattering the state government’s dreams of achieving a record food grains production of 22 million metric tonnes this agricultural season.
An official at the Chief Minister’s Office told Khaleej Times on Tuesday that though the official death toll was put at 16, it was expected to go beyond 20 with incessant heavy rains continuing to lash the coastal districts of East and West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Nellore, Krishna, Prakasam and Vizianagaram. “So far, 30,000 people from the affected areas have been evacuated to about 80 camps established by the district administrations. In all, 23,710 houses have been submerged in these districts,” he said.
Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, who is away in New Delhi to attend the All India Congress Committee meeting, held a teleconference with top officials including the Commissioner of Disaster Management this morning. He is expected to return early this evening and hold an emergency meeting with top officials again to review the situation and to chalk out an effective plan of action to mitigate the sufferings of the people affected by the heavy rains in the past three days, the official said.
The state government had been, in fact, upbeat about the anticipated record production of food grains in the state following the bountiful rains they received during the monsoon season.
The government had even sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to lift existing stocks in government godowns to facilitate accommodation of the expected heavy arrival of paddy and other food grains during the kharif season starting October-end.
According to the state Agriculture Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy, paddy crops in about 216,000 hectares had been either destroyed or damaged in the heavy rains. “The damage was mainly in the two Godavari districts besides Krishna and Nellore,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rosaiah has asked the Commissioner of Disaster Management to open a control room in Hyderabad and the district collectors to have similar arrangement in their headquarters.
The Army, Navy and Air Force have also been requested to be on standby for deployment of forces in case of any exigency. Alternative communication network such as the Ham Radio network and Satellite phones were kept ready at the disposal of district administration.
However, for the people living in these areas, particularly the farmers, there seems little respite with the weatherman forecasting heavy rains till November 6.
-Agencies