Central team visits flood-hit areas in Andhra, to visit Telangana today

Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday visited the flood-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada district and the surrounding areas to get the first hand account of the devastation caused by the recent floods to Krishna river and Budameru rivulet.

Simultaneously, an inter-ministerial team of the central government also began its visit to the flood-affected areas of Krishna, Guntur and NTR districts.

Chouhan, who landed at Gannavaram in the afternoon, conducted an aerial survey of flood-affected areas in Vijayawada along with senior officials of his ministry, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and MP Daggubati Purandeshwari and state information technology minster Nara Lokesh.

Chouhan examined the Budameru rivulet and its catchment areas and inspected the flood-affected areas of Jakkampudi milk factory, Kandrika and Ajit Singh Nagar. Lokesh informed Chouhan the reasons for floods to Budameru rivulet and the extent of devastation it caused to Vijayawada city.

After the aerial survey, Chouhan, along with the ministers went to the Prakasam barrage and inspected the gates that had suffered partial damages due to collision of boats that were washed away in floods to Krishna river.

Later, the Union minister visited the submergence areas of Jakkampudi Colony and Singh Nagar, travelling in a boat arranged by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). From there, he drove to the command and control room at Vijayawada collector’s office where he went through a photo exhibition on flood-hit areas.

Chouhan ended his tour by holding a high-level meeting with senior IAS officials to discuss the loss caused to the state due to floods and heavy rains. Senior officials of various departments explained to the union minister about the loss in their respective departments and submitted reports, an official statement said.

Earlier, in the day, sharing details of his aerial survey, Chouhan tweeted that the department officials would hold meetings with state government officials to assess crop damage and added that the central government is closely monitoring the situation.

“In this hour of crisis, the central government stands fully with the people of the flood-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and will provide all possible help to them in overcoming the crisis,” he assured.

On Friday, the Union minister will visit the flood-affected Khammam district and other areas of Telangana. He would interact with the people and also the farmers to assess crop damage.

Meanwhile, the inter-ministerial team of the central government headed by senior official of the ministry of home affairs Sanjeev Kumar Jindal and comprising National Disaster Management Authority adviser K P Singh and Central Water Commission director Siddarth Mitra, also visited several flood-affected areas of Vijayawada to estimate the losses and destruction.

The central team visited the state emergency operations centre in the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) office in Tadepalli, where officials explained about the torrential rains and floods.

Later, the officials also visited Prakasam barrage, which was recently hit by three large drifting boats, damaging a concrete beam.

As the flood waters began to recede at many places here, personnel of the Vijayawada civic body are busily engaged in sanitation work and also restoring water supply, an official bulletin said.