AP to come up with Blue Book on tackling disasters

Corporates ready to help in construction of houses in affected areas, says Naidu

The Andhra Pradesh government would soon constitute a committee of experts to come out with a Blue Book to tackle cyclones and other disasters, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said here on Monday.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Naidu said the Blue Book would be a kind of a manual containing the whole gamut of measures to be taken on disaster management, including prevention, preparedness, relief, restoration and rehabilitation. He said national and State-level experts would be on the committee. International experts too would be consulted. It would also go into issues such as the equipment and manpower needed.

Asked about the Opposition’s criticism of the tackling of Hudhud cyclone by the government, he said: “ You ask the people.”

Rally on Beach Road

Mr. Naidu, who reviewed the relief and restoration work in Visakhapatnam and other affected areas, said a torch rally would be taken out on Visakhapatnam’s iconic Beach Road to instil confidence in the people. He said that by October 22, the city would be cleared and 400 teams were working on a war-footing.

The losses would be estimated in a couple of days, he said and pointed out that crops in 1.75 lakh hectares and horticultural plantations in an extent of 72,000 hectares were damaged. He said that satellite imagery on the damages would be integrated with the data collected by officials to ensure that injustice was not done to any eligible beneficiary while paying compensation.

He said that many corporates were coming forward to join hands with the State government for building townships in urban reas and housing colonies in rural areas of the cyclone-hit districts.

The Chief Minister said the Farmers Empowerment Corporation would be provided with a sum of Rs. 5,000 crore for immediately launching the debt relief scheme for farmers. The corporation would mobilise additional resources through various means and the modalities were being worked out,

The government would provide debt relief for crop loans up to Rs.1.5 lakh for each farmer’s family and initially 20 per cent cash would be paid to banks and adjusted to the farmers’ accounts. Certificates would be issued for covering the remaining 80 per cent to be cleared in four instalments.