CM Revanth seeks liberal flood relief from Centre

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has sought all possible support from the Centre to Telangana which had suffered a colossal damage due to heavy floods in certain parts of the state.

The Chief Minister, who met the Central team which is here in the state to assess the damage caused due to unprecedented floods, said the estimated loss due to the floods was about Rs 10,032 crore. A final report is under preparation and will be submitted to the Centre soon, he said.

Revanth told the team that the cash-strapped state needs handholding by the Centre and sought liberal assistance by relaxing the existing conditions and norms if need be.

He said if the Centre extends a helping hand, it will help them in not only taking up the relief measures but also in taking up construction of retaining wall for the Munneru rivulet to prevent flooding of Khammam town. He said if the Centre gives liberal funds, the state is ready to bear its share.

The CM said the state was facing hurdles in utilizing the recent grant of Rs 1,350 crore given as NDRF fund because of the stringent conditions. The guidelines have prescribed spending of Rs 1 lakh per km for the repair of damaged roads. This amount will not be sufficient even to take up temporary repairs, he added.

The Chief Minister has also suggested to the Central team to focus more on making arrangements for early warning of weather and environmental disasters like heavy rainfall and heatwaves. The Central team was also requested to provide NDRF help in procuring equipment, training and skills to tackle natural disasters.

The recent incident of uprooting of trees in nearly 50,000 acres in the Medaram forest area also came up for a discussion in the meeting. The Chief Minister urged the Central team to depute experts to conduct a scientific study and give recommendations on the precautions that need to be taken to prevent such incidents in future.