An inter-ministerial central team will visit Telangana to assess the damage caused to the properties due to flash floods and heavy rains.
A five-member team inter-ministerial Central team led by Joint Secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs Praveen Vashista will visit Hyderabad and several districts in Telangana to assess the extent of damage in the region.
The central team will undertake a two-day visit to Telangana from October 22 to assess the extent of losses owing to the flash floods in the state, Minister of state for Home Kishan Reddy said.
The five-member team will include members from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources, Road Transport & Highways, Rural Development and Finance.
The inter-ministerial central team will tour several flood-affected areas, interact with affected people and also inquire about the relief operations currently underway. The central team will hold discussions with senior officials, villagers and farmers to obtain information on the nature and extent of damage caused by the flood.
After completing their visit to the flood-hit areas, the team members will have a meeting with top state government officials, including the chief secretary, special relief commissioner, development and agriculture production commissioners and secretaries to the disaster management. The central team will later submit a detailed report about the damage caused by the flood, Kishan Reddy said.
The minister of state for home also said the central government has announced Rs 4 lakh compensation to the kin of those who died in flash floods, Rs 2 lakh to those who got disabled and Rs 11,700 those who received partial injuries due to the rains.
Further, Kishan Reddy suggested that Telangana should use funds from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. “It is the responsibility of the state governments to utilize the funds for providing immediate relief to the victims of natural disasters from the State Disaster Relief Fund. The Central Government contributes 75% of SDRF allocation for general category States/UTs and 25% will have to be borne by the state government,” Kishan Reddy said.
The Minister of State for Home came down heavily on some Telangana ministers and MLAs for criticizing the central government over the flood situation and relief funds. “This is not the time to politicize. Some comments being made by certain ministers and MLAs are unwarranted. It is wrong to blame the central government,” he said.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has recently urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release Rs 1,350 crore for immediate relief and rehabilitation as the total losses suffered by the state due to heavy rain and flash floods were pegged at Rs 5,000 crore with more than 70 people losing their lives along with heavy damage to infrastructure and crops.
