Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has urged the Union government to extend immediate financial assistance to the flood affected Telangana state which suffered severe losses in the recent heavy rains.
The Chief Minister urged the Centre to help without any conditions to provide relief to the affected people in the state. He also emphasized that the strict rules which are being implemented by the Centre for the utilization of the disaster funds should be relaxed.
Revanth Reddy on Friday met with a group of officials who arrived in the state to assess the damages caused by the floods.
The officials from Delhi divided into two groups toured flood-affected Khammam, Mahbubabad and Suryapet districts for two days. The teams inspected the damages in the flood affected areas. NDMA advisor Colonel K P Singh, headed the team, which comparised of Shantinath Shivappa, Mahesh Kumar, Nayal Kansan, Rakesh Meena and Shashivardhan Reddy.
CM Revanth Reddy brought to the notice of the central team about the hurdles being faced by the state government in the utilization of funds available in the NDRF due to the stringent central regulations. The guidelines have prescribed the utilization of only Rs one lakh for the repair of damaged roads of one km stretch, with which the CM said would not be possible to take up even temporary repairs of the damaged roads.
The CM also briefed the central team about the recent heavy rains and colossal damages caused due to flood fury in the state. According to the comprehensive estimates compiled by the various departments, the damage incurred due to recent floods and heavy rains is at a staggering Rs 10,032 crore. A final report of the damages is under preparation.
The CM said that the vigilance by the ministers and officials in the flood hit areas helped to bring down the loss of human lives. However, thousands of houses were damaged and crops washed away. The farmers bore the brunt of heavy rains after the agricultural fields were covered with boulders, gravel and mud. He explained to the central team that the damage of roads, culverts and lakes exceeded the preliminary enumeration.
The Chief Minister said that the construction of a retaining wall at Munneru Vagu will be a permanent solution to prevent the threat of floods in Khammam town in the future. He requested the Centre to allocate adequate funds for the construction of the retaining wall and the state is ready to release its share of funds. The government will sanction houses to the flood affected people in Rakasi tanda, Satyanarayana thanda and for the people of other tribal habitations in the low lying areas. He also sought help of the Centre for this.