Union Home Minister may tour flood-hit AP, rain toll up to 31

Hyderabad, Nov 4 (UNI) Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil is likely to visit the flood-affected areas in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh on November six with a Central team making a survey the next day.

According to an official release here, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh instructed his officials to make arrangements to send a Central team to assess the flood damage in the state.The decision was taken when Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy called on Dr Singh at New Delhi yesterday to brief him on the situation.

Conveying this to his officials during a review meeting on the latest flood situation here today, Dr Reddy asked the Agriculture Department to take up scientific enumeration of crop damage as soon as the water receded.

He asked the officials concerned to ensure that crop insurance claims were paid to the affected people and sanctioned 50 per cent subsidy on seeds.

The Chief Minister also instructed the Irrigation Department to immediately take up modernisation of the drainage system and ordered them to constitute an expert committee to prepare a detailed report for Krishna and Godavari Delta in six months.

He said 20 kg rice and five litre of kerosene would be supplied free to all the families whose houses were damaged partially or fully by the floods.

Meanwhile, death toll in rain related incidents rose to 31 with 68 mandals affected and 62,262 families evacuated from the flood-hit areas.

UNI AP GM SP RN1959