VIJAYAWADA: Two Central government teams will visit Andhra Pradesh over the next four days to assess the damage caused by Cyclone Arnab and examine the drought situation during the 2026 kharif season in several districts.
A seven-member Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT), led by Chittaranjan Dash, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, will visit Konaseema, Kakinada, East Godavari and West Godavari districts on Saturday and Sunday to assess the damage caused by Cyclone Arnab.
According to State Disaster Management Authority Managing Director Prakhar Jain, senior State officials will brief the team at the Real Time Governance Society (RTGS) on the precautionary measures taken during the cyclone and the extent of damage reported across the affected districts.
The Central team will subsequently split into two groups for field inspections. The first team, accompanied by RTGS CEO and APSDMA Managing Director Prakhar Jain, will visit Konaseema district on Saturday and Kakinada on Sunday.
The second team, accompanied by Director of Secondary Health Chakradhar Babu, will visit East Godavari district on Saturday and West Godavari district on Sunday.
The teams will inspect the affected areas, assess the damage and interact with cyclone-affected people. The members are expected to meet Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday evening. Meanwhile, another 10-member Central team, led by Chinmay Gotmare, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, will visit drought-hit districts on Monday and Tuesday to assess the kharif-2026 drought situation.
The team will split into two groups and undertake field visits to Sri Sathya Sai, Anantapur, Kurnool and Nandyal districts. The members will interact with farmers and assess crop conditions and the impact of deficient rainfall.
Jain said that, as per the drought assessment guidelines of the Union Agriculture Ministry, 283 mandals in the State had been declared severely drought-affected, while 105 mandals were classified as moderately drought-affected during the kharif-2026 season.
The drought assessment team is expected to meet the Chief Minister on Wednesday after completing its field visits.The damage assessment team comprises representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture, Water Resources, Finance, Road Transport and Highways, Rural Development and Power, besides a scientist from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO.
The drought assessment team includes officials from the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre, Rural Development Ministry, Department of Expenditure, Monitoring and Appraisal Directorate, Oilseeds Development, NITI Aayog, Food and Public Distribution Department, and Animal Husbandry and Dairy Department.
