Death toll rises to 32 in Andhra; Central team to visit affected places

The death toll in the unprecedented torrential downpours and floods in Andhra Pradesh rose to 32 and the number of evacuees in relief camps increased to 45369 officials said on WednesdayNTR district which houses Vijayawada the most affected accounted for 24 deaths Guntur seven and Palnadu one said an official releaseAn interministerial team from the Central government will visit the floodravaged districts of Krishna NTR and Guntur on Thursday and will interact with the victimsThe Central team will include National Disaster Management Authority adviser KP Singh Central Water Commission director Siddarth Mitra said a releaseMeanwhile a new weather system is developing over the Bay of Bengal seaA fresh low pressure area is likely to form over westcentral and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal around September 5 said the releaseAccording to the India Meteorological Department light to moderate rainfall is very likely at many places of north coastal Andhra Pradesh from September 4 to 8 and also over South Coastal Andhra Pradesh SCAP from Wednesday to FridayOn Thursday it predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places in Eluru and Alluri Sitarama Raju district and heavy rainfall at one or two places in East Godavari Anakapalli Visakhapatnam Vizianagaram and Parvatipuram Manyam districtsOn Wednesday Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu held a meeting with bankers and insurance company representatives to request them to settle insurance claims on damaged vehicles and others in 10 days and also resolve them in a fortnightLikewise he requested the banks to reschedule flood victims loans as many of them lost everything and are on the cusp of restarting their livesI have convened this meeting with the intention to instill a sense of assurance to people by the government banks and insurance companies said Naidu in a releaseFurther he said that the southern state will consult with the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India RBI to extend maximum helpThe CM requested bankers not to put pressure on flood victims EMIs over appliance purchases and others especially at a time when thousands of homes and vehicles were submergedNaidu visited the floodaffected areas on Wednesday as wellSeveral places in Vijayawada such as Ajit Singh Nagar Devi Nagar and others continue to be waterlogged Budameru the rivulet which wreaked havoc on the city continues to gush with floodwatersOn Wednesday afternoon several floodaffected people were seen carrying water bottles and food packets along the railway tracks in and around Vijayawada even as some tracks were inundatedThe length of roads damaged due to the floods stretched to 3973 km by 8 pm on Wednesday while crops were damaged in 17 lakh hectares of agricultural fields and 18631 horticultural fieldsNearly 235 lakh farmers suffered losses across the stateFlood waters discharged from Prakasam Barrage amounted to 316 lakh cusecs by 6 pm on WednesdayMeanwhile Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan donated Rs 5 crore for flood relief Out of this amount 400 panchayats will receive Rs 1 lakh each for carrying out flood reliefI will ensure that these funds directly go into the accounts of those panchayats which could be used for recovering from the floods said Kalyan in an official releaseBesides the Deputy CM several other individuals and entities donated funds including a bunch of government officers associations coming forward to donate one days salaryCM Naidu has already appealed to the public to come forward and donate to the Chief Ministers Relief FundThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever