Central team concludes visit to Telangana's flood-hit districts

Hyderabad, July 23: Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar briefed the Central team visiting the state on the damages caused by the recent heavy rain and floods in some districts.

The inter-ministerial team led by Saurav Ray, Joint Secretary, Union Home Ministry, returned to Hyderabad on Friday night after visiting the flood-affected districts during the last two days. The team comprising senior Central government officials came to Hyderabad on July 20. Divided into two teams, they visited affected districts on July 21 and 22.

Earlier, it held a meeting with Rahul Bojja, Secretary, Disaster Management, and reviewed the situation in the state. One team visited Nizamabad, Nirmal and Adilabad districts while the other visited Jaishankar Bhupalpally, Mulugu and Bhadradri Kothagudem districts.

The team visited several villages to have first-hand information about the situation. The Chief Secretary thanked the central team for visiting the state and seeing the damage caused to irrigation projects, roads and damage caused to various departments.It complimented the district administration, state government, NDRF teams, Indian Air Force, Army teams for their coordinated efforts which have resulted in minimal loss of life in spite of heavy rains and floods.

Ray, Secretary P. Parthiban, Director K. Manoharan, Ramesh Kumar, Deep Shekar, Shiv Kumar Kushwaha, A. Krishna Prasad were part of the Central team. Based on the field inspection and the inputs received from the state government, the team will submit a report to the Centre, recommending assistance for flood relief.

The state government has already requested the Centre to provide Rs 1,000 crore as immediate assistance. It has also sent a report about the damages. As per the initial estimates, various departments suffered losses to the tune of about Rs 1,400 crore.