Vijayawada: Congress demands government to help cyclone-hit people

Vijayawada: Expressing concern over the extensive damage caused by cyclone Gulab to the crops and public property, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Dr Sake Sailajanath on Tuesday demanded the government should immediately come to the rescue of the people who suffered loss and the farmers who lost their crops due to the cyclone.

In a statement released from Andhra Ratna Bhavan, he said that the officials immediately start assessing the damage to the crops and help the farmers to recover the losses. He said that the two-day rain caused extensive damage and all the rivulets and streams were overflowing causing inconvenience to the people as the communication to various villages was cut off in the agency area.

As per the preliminary estimates, crops of paddy, maize, cotton, chilli, black gram, groundnut, Rajma, sugarcane, tobacco and Ragi in 1.64 lakh acres were damaged in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari and Krishna districts. It was reported that paddy crop in 46,000 acres in West Godavari, 26,000 acres in Vizianagaram, 20,000 acres in Srikakulam, 18,000 acres in East Godavari, 6,500 acres in Visakhapatnam were submerged. Likewise, maize crop in 14,761 acres in Srikakulam, 6250 acres in Vizianagaram was damaged. In Krishna district, cotton was destroyed in 10,588 acres. Horticulture crop was extensively damaged in the North Andhra districts. Coconut crop was damaged in Srikakuam. Banana crop in 3,250 acres, chilli in 1,500 acres, vegetables in 1,000 acres in addition to flowers, orange, guava, cashewnut and turmeric crops were destroyed by the cyclone.

According to officials, the Electricity department suffered loss of Rs 787.06 crore and in Srikakulam alone the loss was Rs 503 crore. He appealed to the officials to expedite the work and make sure there was no interruption in power supply to the people.