Declare floods in Guj, AP, K'taka natl calamity

New Delhi, Aug 8: Rajya Sabha Members from Andhra Pradesh today demanded that the government should declare the devastating floods in the state and in Karnataka and Gujarat as a national calamity and rush immediate help to these states irrespective of which party they were ruled by.

They asked the government to ''rise to the occasion before it was too late.'' Senior BJP leader Mr Venkaiah Naidu, who raised the issue during the Zero Hour, said the situation in these states was very grave as hundreds of villages were marooned, hundreds have died and thousands of acres of crop-land has been devastated.

The Godavari had crossed the danger mark and was rising, flooding many more areas by every hour. The situation in Gujarat was also disturbing as water had entered Baroda and the state capital, he said.

"In Karnataka, 100 talukas from Bagalkote to Gulbarga were affected and around 100 people had died," said Mr Naidu.

''The Centre needs to rush Army, helicopter, planes, boats, make arrangement for dropping food packets and supplying drinking water,'' he said.

He said help should reach immediately otherwise many more people would lose their lives, homes and lands, and demanded that the floods in the three states should be declared a national calamity.

''Usually, the Centre takes too long to act. When its teams reach the spot it is too late and at the end, a paltry amount is announced as assistance,'' he said.

Sharing Mr Naidu's concern, Mr Chittabrat Majumdar of the CPI(M) said the situation in Andhra Pradesh called for immediate response of the Centre as nearly half of the state was under floods. The two tributaries of Godavari were playing havoc, marooning several hundred villages and killing a large number of people and cattle.

He also endorsed Mr Naidu's demand for declaring floods as national calamity.

''The relief operation in these states was not up to mark,'' he added.

Another AP MP Rahul Chandra Shekhar Reddy of the TDP also blamed the Andhra Pradesh government for mishandling the situation and accused the state administration of being callous to the plight of the affected people. He also demanded that the Centre should rush aid to the state and take the situation as a national disaster.

At this stage, there were heated exchanges between the Opposition and Treasury benches as Mr Subbirami Reddy and Ms Renuka Choudhary of the Congress objected to the Members blaming the state government for the flood fury.

Ms Vrinda Karat of the CPI(M) and Mr Amar Singh of the Samajwadi party joined the MP from the affected state in condemning the attitude of the state administration.

The Chair had a hard time pacifying them.

UNI