CM Reviews Damage Caused By Cyclone Nilam

The state government on Monday announced ex-gratia to the families of those killed due to the incidents related to Cyclone Nilam.

The decision was taken during a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar at C-Block in the State Secretariat. As many as 10 ministers, Chief Secretary Minnie Mathew and several senior officials attended the meeting which lasted for hours.

Briefing the media about the decisions, Ministers - N Raghuveera Reddy (Revenue), Kanna Lakshminarayana (Agriculture), D Sridhar Babu (Civil Supplies), DL Ravindra Reddy (Health and Family) and B Sudarshan Reddy (Medium & Major irrigation) said that the government has decided to pay an ex-gratia of Rs 1.5 lakh each to the families of those killed due to cyclone Nilam related incidents. The affected families will also be given 10 kg of rice each. Further, for those who houses were damaged in heavy rains, the government will construct new houses under the Indira Awas Yojna. Those who lost their cattle will also be compensated. The District Collectors have been authorised to spend Rs 10 lakh to repair the damaged roads.

Raghuveera Reddy informed that the death toll due to heavy rains and flooding has increased to 24. As many as 1,274 houses were also damaged in the affected districts. Crops spread across 5.25 lakh hectares got damaged or inundated due to heavy rains. The horticulture crops on 24,332 hectares also suffered.

About 2,180 KM of R&B Roads, 3700 KM of Panchayat Raj Roads, 1,286 Medium and Major tanks, 18 minor irrigation tanks, 44 lift irrigation projects and 225 sub-stations also suffered damage due to impact of cyclone Nilam. As many as 427 Gram Panchayats and 47 municipalities were inundated in flood waters.

The ministers said that relief camps have been set up in the affected districts and drinking water, food and medicines were being supplied to affected people.

They informed that the Chief Minister, PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana, concerned ministers and the Chief Secretary would conduct an aerial survey of the affected areas on Tuesday. They said that the Chief Minister has also asked the Centre to immediately send a team to assess the damages and extend financial assistance. The Union Textiles Ministry has also been asked to pay compensation to the cotton farmers who lost their crops due to heavy rains.

The ministers refuted the allegations being leveled by the opposition parties that the government has failed to take precautions to minimise damages. They said that the India Meteorological Department has predicted heavy rains in three districts of Nellore, Prakasam and Chittoor. However, the government was caught unawares when heavy rains lashed East and West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Khammam, Krishna, Guntur, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam on November 3.

They said that the Chief Minister was in regular touch with the ministers and officials concerned almost on hourly basis and the government did its best to minimise the damages and took up relief operations on war footing. (INN)