Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to continue his visit to flood affected Vijayawada and Khammam

Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh): As flood havoc continues in Andhra Pradesh, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is on his second of a two-day visit to flood-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana will be interacting with affected farmers in Vijayawada and later in Khammam.

Chouhan is also scheduled to conduct an aerial survey of affected areas in Khammam in Telangana and also interact with locals about the losses they faced.

Later in the day, he will hold a meeting with ministers and officers of Telangana in Hyderabad. On Thursday as well, Chouhan along with State Minister Nara Lokesh, interacted with locals at Vijayawada to take stock of the situation.

Soon afterwards, Union Minister Chouhan and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a press conference and said that the situation in Vijayawada is unprecedented and there has been a lot of crop damage also in the area, with 2 lakh farmers affected.

Meanwhile, speaking on the flood situation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, Additional Secretary, MHA said, "...NDRF teams, so far, have rescued 350 persons and have evacuated about 15,000 persons in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana they have rescued 68 persons and evacuated about 3200 persons. They have also provided pre-hospital treatment to several affected persons and are assisting the local administration in distributing the food and relief material to the marooned families."

"IAF and Navy helicopters have carried out 65 sorties and around 71,000 kgs of food and relief material have been dropped to the affected population in Andhra Pradesh...The MHA has constituted the Inter-Ministerial Central Teams which will visit the affected areas in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shortly to make an on-the-spot assessment of damages caused by floods and will make recommendations to MHA for additional financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund..."

On the other hand, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who reviewed the situation at the Andhra Pradesh Disaster Management Authority, also added that protecting lives and property is a top priority. Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan announced on Wednesday that drones are being used to provide food and water to flood-affected areas in the state.

He also donated Rs 1 crore to the Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF).

(ANI)