Centre to provide Rs 500 cr for Guj flood relief operations

Vadadora, Aug 11 (UNI) With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announcing a second tranche of Rs 350 crore for relief operations in Gujarat, the total Central assistance to the flood-affected state was placed at Rs 500 crore.

However, the Central government will provide more funds, after the visit of the Central team to the worst flood-affected areas, the Prime Minister indicated to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during his interaction.

The Centre, during the visit of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, yesterday announced a package of Rs 150 crore for Gujarat, which is grappling with the nature's fury for the past week.

A Central team will be visiting Surat and other affected areas soon, Dr Singh informed the Chief Minister.

Before leaving for Delhi, Dr Singh also interacted with Governor Naval Kishore Sharma as well as senior officials of state government.

The state government has made a presentation to the Prime Minister and sought Rs 2,000 crore as immediate interim assistance from the Centre and placed the preliminary damage assessment at more than Rs 21,875 crore.

The maximum losses reported by industrial units including Central Government's company ONGC and a fertilzer unit of KRIBHCO, besides massive units of Reliance and Essar. Textile and diamond traders virtually lost everything as the entire industrial city was under deep water for the past five days.

The state government also demanded a special package for the Surat industries.

Eds: Pl pick up suitably from earlier series.

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