The heavy rain and flash floods that wreaked havoc in several parts of Andhra Pradesh in the second week of October caused an extensive damage to the extent of Rs 6,368 crore, besides claiming around 50 lives, the state government officials said on Monday.
A report to this effect was submitted by state chief secretary Neelam Sawhney to the seven-member Central team, led by Saurav Ray, joint secretary in the Union ministry of home affairs, which came to Andhra Pradesh on a two-day visit to assess the extent of damage caused due to rain and floods.
Officials of various departments gave a detailed presentation to the visitor.
The chief secretary requested that the Centre release an amount of Rs 5,279.11 crore towards flood relief and restoration of damaged infrastructure, including Rs 840.07 crore for temporary restoration as per NDRF norms and Rs 4,439.14 crore towards permanent relief measures.
Sawhney requested that the Centre release the flood relief on war footing in the wake of the precarious financial position of the state due to Covid-19 pandemic.
She said the state had received a cumulative rainfall of 444.5 mm as against the normal 351.2 mm during the period, which was 26.6 per cent in excess. “Out of 670 mandals (revenue blocks) in the state, 387 mandals in 12 districts had been affected due to incessant rains and floods in Godavari and Krishna rivers,” she pointed out.
{{/usCountry}}She said the state had received a cumulative rainfall of 444.5 mm as against the normal 351.2 mm during the period, which was 26.6 per cent in excess. “Out of 670 mandals (revenue blocks) in the state, 387 mandals in 12 districts had been affected due to incessant rains and floods in Godavari and Krishna rivers,” she pointed out.
{{/usCountry}}She said in all, 45 people were killed in rain-related incidents like wall collapse, drowning and landslides. Five more were reported missing and they could not be traced, despite the best possible search and rescue efforts by NDRF and SDRF.
In all, 8,784 houses were fully damaged in the affected districts while a large number of cattle was also killed.
The chief secretary explained that agriculture crops like paddy, maize, cotton, black gram, pulses and sugarcane, suffered damage to an extent of 2,12,588 hectares. Paddy alone suffered the worst damage in 1,40,485 hectares, while cotton crop was damaged in 25,068 hectares.
Horticulture crops, including vegetables, banana, papaya and turmeric, worth Rs 483 crore were also damaged. About 2657 fish and prawn farming ponds to an extent of 5,819.7 hectares were damaged in West Godavari, Krishna, East Godavari, Guntur and Visakhapatnam districts.
There was extensive damage to road networks, rural water supply schemes, irrigation tanks and drainage systems in urban local bodies.
The Central team later split into three different groups and visited Anantapuramu, Krishna and Guntur districts for an on-the-spot inspection of the damage suffered. The teams will visit East and West Godavari districts on Tuesday.