CM writes a detailed letter to the PM, explaining the damages incurred due to cyclone Jal, and asks him to treat the flood relief as grant
Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday addressed a letter to the prime minister Manmohan Singh on the extensive damages caused by the series of natural calamities, including the recent depression in the Bay of Bengal that devastated the state, and he requested the PM to issue suitable instructions regarding the farming community.
Thanking the PM for sanctioning an amount of Rs. 400 crore for the immediate relief for the state, KKR requested the PM to treat this amount as a grant over and above the CRF limit.
The chief minister also thanked the PM for deputing an inter-ministerial central team for an on-the-spot assessment of the damages caused by heavy rains, floods and the 'Jal' cyclone that occurred in the month of November. This calamity affected 5,327 villages in 15 districts, and has resulted in the devastation of 11.53 lakh hectares of agriculture and horticulture crops, besides affecting the animal husbandry sector, he added.
The livelihood of over 20 lakh small and marginal farmers of the state has been affected, resulting in an extensive damage to public infrastructure. The estimated damage is Rs 1,207.72 crore, the chief minister mentioned in his letter.
"As per the existing CRF norms, the input subsidy comes to Rs. 389.04 crore. However, considering the magnitude of the calamity, the state government has announced relief at an enhanced norm of Rs. 6,000 per hectare for paddy. At this rate, the commitment of input subsidy comes to Rs. 593.12 crore. The total input subsidy comes to Rs. 649.18 crore, including the estimated requirement of input subsidy for the damages of groundnut crop to the tune of Rs. 56.04 crore," the CM said.
He added, "There is a widespread demand for increasing the input subsidy of major crops like paddy, cotton, groundnut and sugarcane, considering the increase in the cost of cultivation. I urge you to consider enhancing the scale of relief to the farmers affected by natural calamities, in accordance with the recommendations of the Working Group on Agriculture Production headed by the Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda."
The state government is also sending a detailed memorandum to the GoI, on the damages caused due to the depression in Bay of Bengal, from December 5 - 12, 2010.
All the 15 districts, namely, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Chittoor, Kadapa, Mahabubnagar, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda, were affected due to the rains during this period.
5327 villages and 8.16 lakhs of population were affected, and the total cropped area affected, including agriculture, horticulture and sericulture, was 12.08 lakh hectares. The estimated crop loss is 1,92,769.75 lakh, and the area of crop damaged (more than 50%) was 11.99 lakh hectares.
The number of houses damaged during the period was 3,169, out of which fully damaged pucca houses were 106, fully damaged kutcha houses 364, severely damaged pucca houses 14, severely damaged kutcha houses 2,654, and partly damaged houses (pucca and kutcha) 31, and the estimated value of damage to houses is Rs. 1345.92 lakhs.
The number of human lives lost was 21, number of big animals lost was 75, the number of small animals lost was 3,001 and the number of poultry (birds) that perished was 4,740.
Road surface damage includes 768.07 kms of roads under R and B, and 3,662.2 kms of roads under panchayat raj.
182 tanks were breached and damaged, under minor irrigation, during the above said period. The estimated value of the damage to public properties under health department is Rs. 79,496.41 lakh. The estimated total damage to houses, crops (including live stock loss and fodder loss) and public properties is Rs. 2,73,932.50 lakh.
Courtesy: INN