VIJAYAWADA: Terming the flooding of Vijayawada a ‘Jal Pralay,’ Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said army will be deployed to plug the breach of the Budameru rivulet. The Union Minister promised all possible support from the Centre to the State in providing relief and rehabilitation to the flood affected people.
Shivraj Singh on Thursday extensively toured the flood affected areas on foot and also conducted an aerial survey, besides visiting the place where Budameru breached, and the Prakasam Barrage. Later, he held a meeting with the State government officials to assess the flood damage.
Speaking to mediapersons along with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Minister of State for Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, Shivraj Singh said the Centre responded swiftly to the State government’s call and despatched NDRF teams, Indian Air Force and army helicopters to take up relief and rescue operations.
The Union Minister lauded the relief measures taken by the State government, which ensured minimum loss of life and property during ‘Jal Pralay’.
“If the government had not responded swiftly, the situation would have been worse,’’ he said. “After my interaction with the people, who were surrounded by the flood water for five days, I found that they are satisfied with the provision of food and water. It is for the first time that food and milk packets have been supplied to the flood affected people using drones,’’ he said. Mentioning that the Prakasam Barrage was constructed 70 years ago with a discharge capacity of 11.90 lakh cusecs, the Union Minister said, “Now, we think of how to increase the discharge from the barrage. The illegal mining during the previous regime is one of the reasons for the breach of Budameru. For now, we will focus on relief.’’
Shivraj Singh said the crop damage is very high and banana plantations, horticulture and floriculture crops have been severely affected. “It is estimated that 1.80 lakh hectares of crops have been damaged, and two lakh farmers are affected. NDRF teams and the agriculture ministry officials are assessing the crop damage.”
Maintaining that the Centre will extend all possible support, he criticised the previous regime for not paying the insurance premium of farmers under the Fasal Bima Yojana which would have helped the affected farmers. “Now, with the support of the present State government, we will try to provide relief to the affected farmers under Fasal Bima Yojana,’’ he said.
Central team visits Barrage
Naidu said the unexpected heavy rains, coupled with human error had caused the huge damage. “We started repair works and modernisation of Budameru in 2019, but the same were not executed by the successive government,’’ he deplored.
Meanwhile, the inter-ministerial team from the Centre began its visit of the flood-affected districts. The team toured Vijayawada, the worst hit by floods, to assess the damage and visited the APSDMA office and Prakasam Barrage.
