The member of Central team P. Gowri Sankar Rao has pointed out that there was a delay in submitting a report to the Central government on the loss incurred due to Helen cyclone that hit the coastal areas of East and West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts in last November.
Mr. Rao, Joint Director, Finance Department and member of the Inter-ministerial Central team, is on a two-day visit to East Godavari district. Interacting with mediapersons here on Wednesday, he said that there was no fault of the Central government as the Union Home Ministry has sent them within 10 days after receiving report from the State government. “State government delayed in sending even preliminary report. The Centre had constituted two teams with eight members headed by Sambhu Singh, Joint Secretary, Home Affairs, to assess the loss caused by Helen and Lehar cyclones.” He said that the report would be submitted to the Central government in 10 days. He said that the State government had submitted a report assessing the loss at Rs.344 crore which would be assessed taking ground realities and norms of the Centre. Mr. Gowri Sankar said that 50 per cent crop loss would be eligible for compensation.
With regard to relief to farmers over Phailin cyclone, he said the Centre has already released Rs.1,000 crores each for Andhra Pradesh and Odisha as advance.
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V.K. Bathla, Assistant Advisor, Drinking water and Sanitation Department, Pankaj Tyagi, Director, Water Resources, Central Water Commission, members of the team were present.
Earlier, Joint Director of Agriculture Vijay Kumar and Assistant Directors of Horticulture Department Durgesh and Ajay Babu explained to the Central team on losses in the district.