Patil to visit flood-hit coastal Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad -- A high-level central team led by Home Minister Shivraj Patil will Tuesday visit parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh which were battered by a cyclone and heavy rains during the last 10 days.

Patil and senior officials will visit the worst hit Krishna, Prakasam and Guntur districts to assess the devastation caused by the cyclone and heavy rains, which claimed 31 lives besides causing widespread damage to crops and property.

The announcement of Patil's visit came three days after Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy rushed to New Delhi to brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi about the havoc wreaked by the natural calamity.

The team will assess the damage, meet the affected people and submit a report to the central government that would form the basis for deciding the quantum of central assistance.

The chief minister has sought central assistance of Rs.14 billion to overcome the crisis, the second such calamity to hit the state in three months.

The heavy rains caused by cyclone 'Ogni' and a low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal inundated hundreds of villages in six districts and nearly 200,000 people were evacuated and shifted to relief camps. About 60,000 people were rendered homeless as more than 13,000 houses were fully damaged.

Meanwhile, though rains have receded in the affected region, dozens of villages and parts of few towns remained inundated. Vehicular traffic had not yet resumed between the port town of Machilipatnam and neighbouring towns and villages in Krishna district.

In August, heavy rains had claimed 131 lives in coastal Andhra and parts of Telangana besides causing widespread damage to crops and property. The state government had then sought Rs.20 billion in central assistance.

After a visit to the affected areas, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced an assistance of Rs.4 billion for relief operations.