Rosaiah appeals for Rs 6,000cr flood relief

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah today urged the Centre to consider the devastating floods in the state as a national calamity and provide Rs 6,000 crore for relief works immediately.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rosaiah said the preliminary estimate of damages due to heavy rains and floods arrives at Rs 12,225 crore.

"I request that the government of India may kindly consider the said calamity as National Calamity of rare severity and release immediately an amount of Rs 6,000 crore under NCCF as advance so as to enable the state government to take up relief, rehabilitation and restoration works on war footing basis," he said in the letter.

Highlighting the severity of the flood situation in the state, Rosaiah said some mandals in the districts of Mahabubnagar and Kurnool had a rainfall of over 30 cm in a day, leading to heavy inflows into major projects located in Krishna basin like Jurala, Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Prakasam barrage and Sunkesula.

The Srisailam project which is designed to have an inflow of up to 13,60,000 cusecs received an inflow of more than 25,00,000 cusecs continuously for 12 hours. This is Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) predicted once in 10,000 years. As on October 3, the  water level in Jurala, Srisailam and Sunkesula projects had crossed maximum water level (MWL), thereby, resulting in inundation of many villages located in the back waters, he said.

The floods have resulted in heavy damage to the public and private infrastructure. Detailed enumeration is being taken up in this regard. As per the preliminary estimate, more than one lakh acres of standing crops has been affected, Rosaiah said.

He also noted that the Srisailam Right Bank power house is under inundation and 770 Mw generation capacity is lost for three-four months. About 574 minor irrigation tanks have been breached.

The state government would submit a detailed memorandum to the Central government shortly, the Chief Minister added.