Vijayawada: Ensure liberal help from Centre, CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy tells Central teams

Vijayawada : Officials of two central teams that toured cyclone-affected areas and studied the drought conditions in some districts separately, called on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at his camp office here on Friday.

The Chief Minister told them that the State government had taken necessary steps to shift the people at the right time from low-lying areas to the relief camps to prevent loss of lives following the cyclone warnings.

The cyclone had resulted in continuous rains and heavy loss of crops as it kept moving along the coast before making a landfall, he told them.

The State government officials who toured the cyclone-affected areas, are in the process of assessing the damage, he said, adding that the list of the farmers who had suffered crop loss will be displayed at the village secretariats after examining the e-crop details.

The names of the missed persons will be included after social audit and proper verification, the Chief Minister told them. He further told the Central teams that the government will extend financial help to the farmers in full transparency and asked them to ensure that the Centre extends financial support to the State liberally.

The two teams apprised the Chief Minister of their findings observed during their tours in drought and cyclone-affected areas. The officials said they had observed that due to the timely measures taken by the official machinery, loss of life was averted.

They expressed satisfaction over the relief measures taken with the support of the village secretariats and lauded the e-cropping system which is not found in other States. The officials said they would submit the report on the loss caused by the cyclone to the Centre.

Committee on drought: Members of the committee on drought told the Chief Minister that they had toured Anantapur, Chittoor, Kurnool, Nandyal, Sri Saya Sai, Annamayya and NTR districts and spoke to the farmers besides observing the water levels in reservoirs and the drought-affected crops.

They said they had also observed the works being undertaken under the employment guarantee scheme and lauded the RBKs and the village secretariat system and their functioning in extending support to the farmers in the State. They said that steps should be taken to encourage farmers in cultivating alternate commercial crops.

The Chief Minister asked the Central team to ensure that the Centre pays the pending bills to the State at the earliest. NIDM executive director Rajendra Ratnu, Agriculture joint director Vikrant Singh and DAFW joint secretary Pankaj Yadav called on the Chief Minister.

Special Chief Secretaries G Sai Prasad (Revenue and Disaster Management), Gopalakrishna Dwivedi (Agriculture), Y Sri Lakshmi (MA & UD), B Rajasekhar (PR), Water Resources Principal Secretary Sasibhushan Kumar, Transport secretary Pradyumna Kumar, Agriculture special commissioner CH Harikiran, Disaster Management director Ambedkar and other senior officials were among those present.