Union Minister for Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday that efforts are underway to provide immediate assistance of Rs 3,448 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which includes the Centre’s share. After completing his tour of Andhra Pradesh, Chouhan met Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at the state Secretariat to discuss flood relief measures in the state. He was accompanied by Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs and Telangana BJP leader. This was the first time that Union ministers visited the state Secretariat since its construction during the previous BRS regime.
Chouhan, who had earlier visited Andhra Pradesh to assess the damage, toured Khammam on Friday, which also experienced devastating floods. He spoke to farmers whose crops were damaged due to the floods and watched a photo exhibition on the floods which had damaged not only crops but also the national highway between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and had washed away railway tracks. Chouhan said, “We are working to provide immediate help. No one needs to be disappointed, we will work together. The central government stands with the state government, and we will help farmers overcome every crisis.” He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was concerned about the flood situation in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said the flood damage in both states should be viewed from the same perspective. Certain districts had received up to 40 cm of rain on a single day. He also urged the Union minister to relax the guidelines for the release of NDRF funds.
Earlier in the day, a team of Army personnel joined the engineers of the Andhra Pradesh government to repair the breach of the Budameru stream, which had caused the floods in Vijayawada. Although the state government had been able to repair the breach at two places, the Army personnel were called in to repair the third breach.