Members of a Central team, constituted to assess loss due to heavy rains, visited flood-ravaged villages in Guntur district on Tuesday.
Team members – Joint Secretary (NE) Shambhu Singh, Joint Director, Directorate of Pulses Development, R.P. Singh and SE Krishna and Coordination Circle M. Ramesh Kumar – accompanied by Joint Collector Vivek Yadav and other officials witnessed the extent of damage caused due to heavy rains that battered the district in the last week of October.
Officials from Agriculture, Horticulture and Revenue Departments arranged photo exhibitions of marooned villages in Guntur and apprised the team of the losses in different mandals in the district. According to the district officials, agriculture crops in about 1.44 lakh hectares and horticulture crops in an extent of 22,000 hectares were damaged due to floods.
Rotten crops
Decayed crops greeted the team members at Penumaka village on the banks of Krishna river in Tadepalli mandal. Farmers explained that Kondaveedu Vaagu had overflowed and caused extensive breaches damaging crops in some thousands of acres in the mandal. “We raised onion, banana and other vegetable crops in Penumaka, Rayapudi and other villages by investing Rs.20,000 to Rs.50,000 per acre. But the entire crop was damaged as floodwater was stagnated in the fields for over a month,” said an onion farmer Rama Rao who displayed the withered crop before the team.
Telugu Desam MLA Dhullipalla Narendra submitted a memorandum demanding the government to pay compensation to the farmers and the flood victims immediately.
Speaking at a meeting with heads of various departments, Mr. Shambhu Singh said the crop loss was heavy in the district, and a detailed report would be submitted to the government on the calamity.
Correspondent: A two-member Central team, deputed to assess the loss due to heavy rains, visited some remote villages and interacted with farmers and public representatives on the first day of a two-day tour in the district on Tuesday evening.
K. Ramavarma, Secretary, Rural Development and A. Chandrashekar, Research Officer, Planning Commission accompanied by Joint Collector L. Sharman and other officials visited Mannevari Pally, Marlepadu tanda.
Farmers briefed the team about their loss and urged the officials to provide financial assistance soon.
MP from Nagarkurnool M. Jagannath, Achempet MLA P. Ramulu, Wanaparthy MLA R. Chandrashekar Reddy and other leaders apprised the Central team about farmers’ loss in Achampet, Nagarkurnool and Kollapur Assembly segments in the district.
Farmers obstruct assessment
Staff Reporter adds: Farmers of Tadakamalla village obstructed the tour of the Central team deputed to assess loss to farmers due to heavy rains. According to schedule, the two-member Central team comprising Chandrasekhar (Planning Commission) and K. Srirama Varma (Rural Development) first visited Ravulapenta village of Vemulapally mandal commencing their tour.
The team, accompanied by Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer S. Venkat Rao, was to leave to Peddadevulapally village when about 20 farmers intercepted them with a request to visit their village which had suffered huge losses. However, the members of the team and CEO managed to convince them saying that they were running out of time and promised that they would get suitable compensation for their loss.
The team visited Tripuraram, Nidamanoor, Peddavura and Dindi mandals in the district.
