T'gana rains: 5 member Central team to visit state for 2 days

He directed them to constitute 300 teams in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Area and 50 in neighbouring municipalities to distribute financial assistance at the doorsteps of households without any delay. The Chief Minister on Wednesday instructed the official machinery to remain on high alert and ensure no breaches of tanks and lakes in the city.

A five-member central team would arrive here on Thursday on a two day visit of Telangana from Thursday for an on-the-spot assessment of damage caused by the recent deluge, while Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed officials to ensure no breach of tanks and lakes in the city, which bore the brunt of the rain fury. Union Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy on Wednesday announced the visit of the inter-ministerial team in a tweet.

Reddy, the Lok Sabha member from Secunderabad here, had visited several rain-hit areas here last week soon after the downpour. The heavy rains have left 70 people dead in the state in the last one week and caused damage to properties with the state government pegging losses at over Rs 5,000 crore as per preliminary estimates.

On Wednesday, relief works and distribution of financial aid of Rs 10,000 announced by Chief Minister to each of the flood-affected households continued. State Municipal Administration K T Rama Rao and other leaders visited different localities in the city and distributed the aid.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar,as per directions of the CM, instructed officials to prepare a systematic plan to expedite the distribution of the financial assistance, an official release said. He directed them to constitute 300 teams in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Area and 50 in neighbouring municipalities to distribute financial assistance at the doorsteps of households without any delay.

The Chief Minister on Wednesday instructed the official machinery to remain on high alert and ensure no breaches of tanks and lakes in the city. The direction was issued in the wake of a Met department forecast that thunderstorms, accompanied by lightning, was very likely to occur at isolated places in Telangana.

Rao wanted 15 special teams to be constituted to examine the tanks in the city from time to time and take necessary steps, an official release said. "As tanks in the city have water to their capacity and there is still flood water inflow in them, there is every likelihood of these water bodies getting breached causing more damage. Hence, at least 15 special teams comprising officials and staff of Water Resources department should be formed," he said.

Rao also instructed the authorities concerned to alert people living in low lying areas and shift them to safer places. The city received heavy rainfall, unprecedented in the last hundred years, resulting in inundation of low-lying areas, brimming of dams and lakes, he said.

Principal Secretary (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar said all 185 tanks in the city were overflowing in the wake of heavy rains. Of these tanks, only three had breaches and they were repaired within 12 hours, he said.

Meanwhile, state Congress Committee President and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday demanded that the state government increase the flood relief amount from Rs 500 crore to Rs 5,000 Crore. The party's core committee decided to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demand that the present situation in Telangana, brought about by the deluge, be declared a national calamity, a release said here today.

The Congress "condemned the incompetent and inefficient handling of the excess rains cum flood situation in Hyderabad and other parts of the state by TRS government", it said. Meanwhile, GHMC Mayor Bonthu Rammohan performed a puja to the Musi river at Puranapul here and offered silk clothes, sacred turmeric powder and Kumkum, besides 'navaratnas' in a silver plate, praying that the water fury should subside, a GHMC release said.

Deputy Mayor Baba Fasiuddin offered a 'chadar' to a Dargah there, it said. State Home Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali and Animal Husbandry Minister T Srinivas Yadav were present on the occasion.

The prayers by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor were similar to the special pujas conducted by the then ruler Nizam Mir Mahabub Ali Khan in 1908 when massive floods in Musi river devastated the city, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)