An inter-ministerial team from the Centre on Monday met Andhra Pradesh chief secretary Nilam Sawhney to discuss the damage caused by the recent torrential rains and flash floods that hit the state.

The central team held a meeting with the Chief Secretary at the Secretariat. The state administration, across all major departments, presented a photo exhibition before the central team to show the extent of damage caused to the crops and loss to property due to the floods. 

The Chief Secretary told the central team that the floods caused more than Rs 6,386 crore damage to crops and properties in the state and sought an immediate release of Rs 840 crore. Apart from agricultural and horticultural crops, the floods have caused severe damage to fisheries, animal husbandary, sericulture, roads and other state infratructre. The Roads and Buildings department incurred a loss of Rs 2,976 crore, the CS told the visiting central team.

During the visit, the central team assessed the situation in the rain and flood affected areas in Guntur. The team was represented by officials from agriculture, finance, department of Water Resources, Power, Road Transport and Highways and Rural Development. The Central team had toured the flood-affected agriculture and horticulture fields in Kolluru and Bhattiprolu mandals of Guntur district.

Earlier in the day, district collector A. Md. Imtiaz gave a detailed presentation on the crop loss in Guntur district with a power-point presentation, photo exhibition. He told the central team that roads and power installations suffered severe damage, while standing crops in thousands of acres were destroyed.

The district collector has apprised the central team of the extent of crop damaged. He told the officials that crops were damaged in 17,000 hectares of crop was damaged in agricultural fields, while 8,000 hectares of horticultural crops were affected.  The district collector submitted a detailed report on crop damage to the Central team.

The central team visit comes in the wake of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting that a team be sent to the state to enumerate the losses caused by torrential rains and floods. The Chief Minister had sought Rs 2,250 crore as immediate flood relief. As per preliminary estimates, the state suffered damage to the tune of Rs 4,450 crore due to the deluge from October 9 to 13 and the consequent flooding.