AP suffered Rs 7,600 cr loss

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, on Wednesday, said that flood relief for those who suffered heavy losses in the recent cyclone is distributed to the victims in a record time of just 15 days. Maintaining that the State has suffered a total loss of Rs 7,600 crore due to the recent cyclonic storm, the Chief Minister also handed over the formal letters to the flood victims on the relief distributed to them at the District Collectorate in Vijayawada.
Later, Chandrababu told media persons that besides those who suffered losses in Budameru floods, relief amounting to a total of Rs 602 crore is also credited to the personal accounts of other affected persons. Chandrababu claimed that the relief paid to the flood victims is perhaps the highest in the country and those victims who did not receive the compensation on Wednesday will be paid the relief latest by September 30. “We will see to it that the last victim of the floods receives the amount, as promised,” he said, and stated that the list of the affected has been prepared in the most transparent way, which was displayed at all the village secretariats.
Chandrababu pointed out that the previous TDP regime had released Rs 57 crore for modernisation of Budameru, but the YSRCP government totally ignored it and abandoned these works with political discrimination. He also said that the Prakasam Barrage, too, received a record inflow of 11.43 lakh cusecs while it has a capacity of only 10.9 lakh cusecs.
Recalling that he camped at Singh Nagar along with the District Collector on learning about the situation, he said that he was very much hurt on watching the ground reality. Each affected district was released Rs 3 crore to take up emergency works. He directed the officials to spend the amount immediately without waiting for any kind of orders. “Overnight we got six NDRF teams, 100 power boats and helicopters after contacting the Centre. Also, we pressed into service 120 boats and 150 drones,” the CM said. He said four or five times he personally visited the areas which were affected very badly and facing a threat.  
Thousands of people took part in the relief operations. Drinking water bottles and food packages were distributed on time.
He added that the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) received a record amount of donations worth Rs 400 crore. “It is really inspiring that the donors have come forward with humanity. Even children donated their savings and I thank all of them profusely,” the CM remarked.
Stating that 17,000 applications were received in the past two days of which 4,000 were found to be fake, the Chief Minister said that the remaining 14,000 applications will be cleared after examining them thoroughly. Eligible people will certainly get the relief and the reasons will be explained to those who have not received it, he added.
Chandrababu said it has become a habit for some persons to cause destruction and pass the blame onto others. “It is our primary duty to safeguard the lives of the people and maintain law and order. We will not tolerate if anyone tries to cause any kind of hurdles to this,” the Chief Minister warned.