Central team to visit HP to assess losses due to flash floods

Shimla, July 14: An inter-ministerial central team would soon be visiting the rain-hit areas of Himachal Pradesh for on-the-spot assessment of losses due to the flash floods.

Newly elected Congress MP from Mandi, Pratibha Singh, who met Union Home Minister Sushil Shinde in this regard, today said that he has assured to depute an inter-ministerial central team to visit the state shortly.

Singh said that she has apprised Shinde about the losses due to excessive rains and told that the state government has assessed the loss at over Rs 2,575 crore.

The team would consist of senior officials from the ministries of Agriculture, Finance, Planning Commission, Road Transport and Highways and Rural Development, she said. It would visit the rain-ravaged areas of the state including the tribal district of Kinnaur to assess the losses and the damage to crops and private-public property.

She said the state had been pushed back by almost one year in terms of development due to the flash floods and it had also affected the tourism sector. Tourists left the state in the middle of the season due to flash floods.

The government needed massive investment in the infrastructure sector to bring normalcy in the region, Singh said.

PTI