VIJAYAWADA: Describing the Budameru floods in Vijayawada as the biggest disaster he has seen in his political career, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the Central Government will be urged to announce it as a national calamity.
Speaking to newsmen on Monday night, he said they will send all the needed reports to the Centre and request liberal funding to address the situation. “In this calamity, there has been a large human suffering and property loss. Crop damage is extensive and assets, both public and private have suffered damage. We will report all these to the Central Government and request for their help and aid,” he said.
On the status of the floods, he said the Budameru is receding steadily and flood level has come down by 1.5 feet compared to Sunday night. It will further decrease by Tuesday and normalcy will be restored soon.
“Prakasam Barrage has witnessed inflows like never before, 11.43 lakh cusecs is the highest ever. The discharge capacity of the barrage is 11.90 lakh. Now, the inflows have started subsiding and by Monday night, it has come down to 11.19 lakh cusecs and will further decrease,” he explained.
Taking strong exception to the comments of YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy that the State government had intentionally diverted Budameru water to save his house, Naidu said the comments of Jagan reflect his ignorance.
“He speaks of gates of Budameru when there is no such thing. It was his government’s failure in plugging the breach that happened during their regime, that led to this disaster,” he said and advised Jagan to desist from resorting to malicious propaganda against his government and Capital Amaravati for milage.
Naidu observed that when he was the Chief Minister, Jagan never went out to meet the people in crisis and one time he went, it was a red-carpet version. “Today, he was helpless, so he got into mud, for politics,” Naidu pointed out.
The Chief Minister explained how he is pained by the suffering and grief of the flood victims in Ajit Singh Nagar, citing insistence, which reflects the intensity of the suffering of people in the disaster, made it clear to the officials that they have to be more humane, and compassionate. “These people have suffered, they will be emotional and even historical. We need to be patient and help them. Our task is to ensure the last man at the last mile gets the help and loss of life is minimised,” he stressed.