Treat heavy rains, floods in AP as national disaster, CM urges Centre

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu appealed to the Central government to declare heavy rains and floods which caused extensive damage to AP as a national disaster.

He said Budameru in Vijayawada received flood of 9.72 lakh cusecs resulting in inundation of Singh Nagar and other areas in Vijayawada city.

Speaking to mediapersons at the Collector’s office here on Sunday, the Chief Minister said that over 95,430 families were stranded in the submerged area. Priority will be given to supply of food and water to the stranded people and they would be shifted to relief centres on Monday.

The Chief Minister said that he spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah over phone and explained the alarming situation. The Central government agreed to send 10 NDRF teams, 40 boats and six helicopters to evacuate people.

Describing the Budameru disaster as a human error committed by the previous YSRCP government, the Chief Minister said that breaches will be plugged on Budameru downstream on a war-footing to ease the situation.

The Chief Minster said that he was going to stay in his caravan at the Collector office to instill confidence among the panic-stricken flood victims.

He said that after a review of the flood situation, he would once again visit the flood-affected Singh Nagar area to boost the morale of the local people.