Provisional damage due to floods estimated at Rs.525 crore

Hyderabad, Aug 10 (UNI)The provisional damages due to floods in Andhra Pradesh were estimated at Rs 525 crore and the crop damages to be about 2.12 lakh hectare.

The State Level Bankers' Committee(SLBC) at its meeting headed by Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Bank K Ramakrishnan today worked out the damages based on the area and crops grown.

The damages in ten districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari, Nizambad, Warangal, Khammam and Adilabad were estimated at about Rs.525 crore taking the scale of finance into account.

In addition to damage to crop, there was lot of damage caused to the residential houses.

Mr Ramakrishnan appealed to all the banks to immediately provide the required relief to farmers, artisans, and Self Help Groups(SHG) and other weaker sections.

The meeting also decided to extend relief measures like finance for rejuvenation of crops, fresh loans for raising alternate crops, converting existing crop loans and earlier restructured loans into medium term loans, to provide finance for purchase of live stock and other assets washed away, additional finance to SHGs to revise their activities and to provide consumption loans to all the affected people.

The meeting also decided to constitute a committee representing Andhra Bank, State Government, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), SBI, SBH, Deccan Grameena Bank and AP Cooperative Bank to visit the affected areas and extend required guidance to the field level functionaries.

Mr Krishnan requested the lead banks to immediately convene special DCC meetings in the respective districts and sensitise the Branch Managers regarding the relief measures.

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