The Inter-Ministerial Central team for spot assessment of the damaged done by Hudhud cyclone will present its report to the Central Government in a week, its head and Joint Secretary in Union Home Ministry, K.K. Pathak has said.
He was speaking to the media at Sunkarametta in Visakha Agency during the team’s second day of the tour on Wednesday. The team visited some 15 places in the plain and Agency areas. “The loss to different structures, facilities and etc. appears to be more than 50 per cent,” he said. It was for the Centre to increase the compensation, Mr. Pathak said replying to a question.
Earlier, along with Mr. Pathak, the other members of the team —S.M. Kolhatkar of Union Ministry of Agriculture (Hyderabad), Subrata Sanyal of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, R.P. Singh of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Vivek Goel of Central Electricity Authority—visited the Ramakrishna beach road which suffered damage, and went round a photo exhibition organised by the GVMC Commissioner in-charge M. Janaki and Engineer-in-Chief of Municipal Administration Panduranga Rao.
Collector N. Yuvaraj, Chairman of VPT M.T. Krishna Babu, CMD of EPDCL M.V. Seshagiri Babu, Commissioner of Fisheries Praveen Kumar and MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar accompanied the Central team during its visit.
At Sunkarametta, PO of ITDA, Paderu V. Vinaychand submitted a report to the team on the damage done to the coffee plantations, roads and other structures during the cyclone.
Loss put at Rs. 2,000 cr.Vizianagaram Correspondent adds: The four-member Central team comprising R. Ramesh Kumar, P.S. Chakravarti, Rajib Kumar, and K. Rama Varma on Wednesday visited Hudhud-hit Kavulavada, Thudem, and Dibbalapalem, and Mukkam in Bhogapuram mandal, Tippalavalasa and Kumili villages in Poosapatirega mandal and Natavalasa in Denkada mandal and inspected damages.
At Mukkam, Kumili and Bhogapuram villages, they went round a photo exhibition on the damages. During the visit, coconut growers at Dibbalapalem informed the team that the compensation of Rs. 1000 per tree announced for cutting and removing the trees was inadequate. In other villages the team members inspected uprooted electric poles, damaged horticulture crops, water schemes, hatcheries etc.
Later, at the review meeting, Rural Development Minister K. Mrunalini appealed to the team members to recommend immediate release of the balance amount for taking up repairs to damaged infrastructure. The Centre has released Rs. 400 core so far against the Rs. 1,000 crore announced by the Prime Minister, she said.
Collector M.M. Naik said that after careful enumeration of losses, the loss due to cyclone was put over Rs. 2,000 crore.
