A central team which arrived in the state to assess flood damage visited Jayashankar Bhupalpally and Mulugu districts on Thursday. The team is scheduled to visit Bhadradri Kothagudem district on Friday.

The team comprising finance ministry deputy secretary Parthiban, jute development director K Manoharan, central water commission director Ramesh Kumar and national highways authority SE Shiv Kumar Kushvaha were briefed by Jayashankar Bhupalpally collector Bhavesh Mishra on the extent of damage caused in the district.

The team also visited the affected areas.

At Nimmagudem, the central team saw the heavy damage caused to the highway between Kataram and Medaram. The officials also made an assessment of the damages to culverts.

The team asked for details about number of farmers who lost their crops. At Dautpalli village in Mahamutharam, the team was informed that 110 acres of cotton crop had been damaged and fields were covered with sand. Apart from cattle deaths, the district recorded crop loss in 14,106 hectares, most of which was cotton.

The state officials said that about 15cr was required for temporary restoration, while 118cr was needed for fully repairing irrigation tanks, roads, electricity sub stations and poles.

In Mulugu, collector S Krishna Aditya gave a presentation on the havoc over seven days from July 10 when the district received 956.2 mm rain in nine mandals. The team was informed that it was for the first time that the area had been flooded so heavily due to water rising in Godavari.

The officials were informed of crop damage in 5,937 acres, including paddy in 1,060 acres, cotton in 3,895 acres and mirchi in 982 acres.

After being briefed about the damage at the collectorate, the team later went to Eturunagaram to assess the damage. 

Source - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com