Andhra Pradesh urges Centre to declare flood-hit areas a national calamity

Hyderabad, Oct 5 (ANI): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Monday urged the Centre to consider areas hit by the devastating floods as a national calamity.

Rosaiah also demanded the release of Rs 6,000 crore as relief for the flood-affected regions.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rosaiah said the preliminary estimate of damages due to heavy rains and floods arrives at Rs 12,225 crore.

In his letter, Rosaiah requested the Centre to consider the prevailing situation in the state as national calamity of rare severity and release immediately an amount of Rs 6,000 crore from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF).

The floods have resulted in heavy damage to the public and private infrastructure. Detailed enumeration is being taken up in this regard. As per the preliminary estimate, more than one lakh acres of standing crops has been affected, Rosaiah said.

He noted that the Srisailam Right Bank powerhouse is under inundation and 770 MW generation capacity is lost for three-four months. About 574 minor irrigation tanks have been breached.

He also asked the officials take up relief, rehabilitation and restoration works on war footing basis.

Some of the blocks in Mahabubnagar and Kurnool districts had a rainfall of over 30 cm in a day, from the last one week leading to heavy inflows into major projects located in Krishna basin like Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Prakasam barrage and Sunkesula. (ANI)