YS Jagan orders complete enumeration of crop loss

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday evening conducted an aerial survey of flood-hit areas of Guntur and Krishna districts.

Accompanied by ministers M Sucharita and Kodali Venkateswara Rao, he inspected the damage to agriculture and horticulture crops in Nandigama, Avanigadda, Penamaluru, Mylavaram, Tadikonda, Kolluru and other mandals in the two districts.

A flood discharge of over seven lakh cusecs in river Krishna last week left standing crops in thousands of acres in these districts inundated and also marooned hundreds of houses.

The Chief Minister directed the authorities to complete enumeration of the loss as early as possible and extend input subsidy to the hapless farmers.

Timely distribution of input subsidy would help the farmers in taking up cropping in the Rabi season, he said. The flood flow in river Krishna decreased to 4.90 lakh cusecs at Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada by Monday evening, but discharges from upstream reservoirs continued to be over five lakh cusecs.

With incessant rain in catchment areas in neighbouring Telangana filling up midstream rivulets like Munneru, the flood at Prakasam Barrage continues to pose a threat to the lanka villages, mostly in Guntur district, apart from the habitations on the left bank of the river in Krishna district.

Meanwhile, the state government issued orders for free distribution of essential commodities to families affected by the floods and heavy rains in Krishna, Guntur, West and East Godavari districts.

Families whose houses remained marooned or inundated for a week would be given 25 kgs of rice, one kg red gram dal, one kg potatoes and one kg onions, besides a litre of edible oil, according to Revenue (Disaster Management) Principal Secretary V Usharani.