HYDERABAD: The state government’s wait for Central financial assistance for flood relief seems to be getting longer. The state government received a communication from the Centre that its teams would make a second visit to the flood-affected areas to assess the damage caused by recent heavy rains and the subsequent Godavari floods in north Telangana districts before recommending to the Centre on financial assistance to the state, according to official sources.
The state government is yet to submit a final report to the Centre on flood damage. During the previous visit of Central teams to Telangana last week, the government submitted a preliminary report putting flood damage at Rs 1,400 crore and sought immediate financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore.
However, the Central teams were reportedly not satisfied with the preliminary and incomplete reports submitted by the state government and decided to make a second visit to the state after the state government submits a final report on flood damage.
The preliminary report of the state government putting the loss at Rs 1,400 crore pertains to only the losses suffered by various government departments. No report was submitted on losses suffered by people due to the flooding of houses, damage of houses, vehicles and other belongings.
There is no report on the amount of losses suffered by farmers due to damage caused to standing crops though the preliminary estimates by the government stated that crops over an extent of 11 lakh acres were damaged.
The roads and buildings department incurred the loss of Rs 498 crore, the panchayat raj department Rs 449 crore, the irrigation department Rs 33 crore, the municipal administration department Rs 379 crore and the energy department Rs 7 crore, as per preliminary estimates.
The damage caused to houses and expenditure incurred to evacuate people from these houses was pegged at Rs 25 crore.
On July 17, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao announced financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to each household affected by floods. However, the financial assistance is yet to be disbursed.
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