PM's visit to flood affected region postponed

New Delhi, Aug 9: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's scheduled visit to the flood affected regions of Gujarat and Maharashtra tomorrow, was postponed due to bad weather conditions prevailing over there, official sources said today.

No fresh date has been fixed, the sources said.

Dr Singh has spoken to Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The Prime Minister's Office is monitoring the flood situation which has affected a large section of population in these four states.

It has offered to immediately release the Calamity Relief Funds to the four affected states and provide additional financial assistance to them to deal with the floods.

Flood situation in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh is being closely monitored by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Control Room established in the ministry is functioning round the clock on a 24X7 basis to coordinate the logistic support required by the affected states.

Regular meetings are being conducted in the ministry to review the situation caused by heavy rains/floods. In these meetings a comprehensive review has been conducted by Secretary, (border Management), MHA to expedite provision of the requisite logistic support to the affected States. It is also in constant touch with the concerned state governments.

The Centre has provided six helicopters to Maharashtra of which four are deployed at Nanded and two at Yavatmal. One helicopter each is kept on standby at Pune and Nagpur.

Seven naval diving teams with Gemini boats are made available to State Government. One is deployed at Nanded and six are on standby at Mumbai. Nine teams of Engineering Task Force (each with 2 boats and 2 OBMs and 2 persons) are deployed, two at Nanded and one each at Jalna, Washim, Yavatmal, Akola, Buldhana and Nandarbar districts.

Seven Army columns are deployed at Hingoli, Parbhani, Yavatmal, Washim, Jalna, Sangli and Kolhapur while 200 personnel from CRPF are also deployed at Nanded.

The Centre is ready to immediately release the first instalment of Calamity Relief Fund to Maharashtra. The state was not earlier released CRF as utilisation certificate was not furnished.

UNI

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