The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Raghuveera Reddy and former PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana demanded that the Centre declare Cyclone Hudhud as a national calamity and depute a Central government team to establish the exact extent of damage in Visakhapatnam and other North Coastal Andhra districts.
At a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr. Reddy wanted the government to make public the complete details of those who lost their lives and those who were injured in the havoc that Cyclone Hudhud left in its wake. He said that crop in an estimated six lakh acres was lost, thousands of houses damaged with roofs blown away in the fierce winds, fishing boats rocked when the winds made them crash against each other, he said.
The Congress leaders said that the need to compile the data on damage across the four districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and East Godavari was urgent. Damage estimates needed to be compiled for each village as a unit and made available with every gram panchayat and online, to facilitate relief and restoration.
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While the AP Government had initially declared that the damage was estimated at about Rs. 2,000 crore, it turned out that it was anywhere between Rs. 60,000 and Rs. 70,000 crore, beyond estimation by the State government.