Flood Relief: Rich Telangana – Poor AP!

Incessant rains wreaked havoc in both the Telugu states and also brought to fore the stark difference in the economic conditions of the neighbouring states.

With the rains continuing unabated for more than 10 days, several rivers, streams and canals flowed beyond their capacity, inundating many low-lying areas. Many places got flooded and marooned with tanks and tributaries of major rivers getting breached.

The heavy rains threw normal life out of gear as they faced tough time reaching their offices and workplaces. The officials and public representatives had to swing into action and take steps to bring back people’s lives to normalcy. People in low-lying areas were shifted to relief camps arranged in safer zones.

Chief Ministers Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and K. Chandrasekhar Rao made aerial survey of the areas affected by floods to assess the damage done to crops, public property and individuals.

Places abutting River Godavari were the worst hit in either of the states. KCR made a tour to Bhadrachalam and surrounding areas which were badly hit by floods and announced a compensation of Rs 10,000 for each affected family shifted to the relief camps. He also directed the officials to construct permanent structures to avoid flooding of areas adjoining River Godavari – Bhadrachalam, Sri Sita Ramachandra Swamy temple, Burgumpadu, Pinapaka and surrounding places. For this, he allocated Rs 1,000 crore and at the same time, he also granted Rs 2.5 crore to Mulugu, Rs 2.3 crore to Bhadrachalam, Rs 2 crore to Jayashankar Bhupalapally and Rs 1.5 crore to Mahabubabad for taking up flood-relief measures.

In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy announced Rs 2,000 to each family affected by flood. He did not allocate any funds for taking up permanent measures to avert floods nor did he sanction funds for the repair of the public property damaged due to the floods.

This makes Telangana rich and Andhra Pradesh poor when it came to flood relief measures, pointed out political analysts.