Nitish Kumar hints at special assistance

By Our Staff Reporter

BAPATLA, AUG. 26. The Union Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Nitish Kumar, has said that he is convinced that Andhra Pradesh is a fit case for special assistance. The Minister visited Jillellamudi village of Bapatla mandal and inspected the inundated farm fields on Saturday.

Talking to presspersons at the Suryalanka Air Force Station before his departure for Hyderabad, Mr. Nitish Kumar said he visited limited places among the affected areas. He visited Nandyal and Bapatla. But the problem seemed to be grave here due to heavy rain and breaches to several drains. A large portion of farm fields was under water.

Around 30,000 hectares of paddy was reportedly inundated in these parts of Guntur district. The Minister said the damage was enormous and an unprecedented kind of a situation was prevailing here. ``I am convinced that this is a fit case for special assistance,'' he pointed out.

To a query on the criticism by the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, about the ``irrational distribution'' of Central funds to the states, Mr. Kumar said: ``He tells everything. I will have to say the allocations and the details of the funds given to different States. As a matter of fact the A P Government is entitled to a sum of Rs. 200 crores under Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) of which Rs. 148 crores is the Centre's share. The Centre has already released Rs. 74 crores under the CRF to the State. Afterall, Mr. Naidu is only reflecting the sentiment of the people of Andhra Pradesh. He is well within his right to say that.''

Responding to another question whether he was contradicting the opinion of Mr. Naidu, the Union Minister shot back asking ``Did I say that. Did you see any contradiction in my statement. Why do you ask such questions?''

Mr. Kumar said he was asked by the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, to visit the affected areas. Accordingly, he visited and understood the gravity of the situation and apprised the Prime Minister of the same. He said he was accompanied by a multidepartment team of bureaucrats who were collecting all the details of the flood damage. He would discuss the situation with the Chief Minister also, he pointed out.

Though Mr. Kumar was scheduled to visit Appikatla village and Nallamada drain, he cut short his programme due to shortage of time. Angered by this, the villagers of Appikatla staged a `rasta roko' on the Guntur-Bapatla-Chirala road. The Minister for Medical and Health, Dr. S. Aruna, and the Minister for Technical Education, Mr. A. Rajendra Prasad, rushed to the scene to assuage the hurt feelings of the villagers soon after Mr. Kumar's team left for Hyderabad.

Earlier, Mr. Kumar witnessed a photo exhibition organised at the Agriculture College here.

Mr. Kumar also visited the flood-affected areas of Nandyal town in Kurnool district. The Central team visited the worst-affected Tekke, Shobha lodge and other areas in the town and examined the extensive loss caused to the property. Later, the team visited Chinnacheruvu, 400-year-old agriculture tank, which had breached at several places. The team went to Kanala village on the outskirts of the town where a tank had breached inundating paddy fields.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Nitish Kumar described the loss as extensive, and said he would try to convince the Union Government of the need for substantial help to the flood-hit areas. Officials from central government, Mr. Bhagat Singh, Additional Secretary, Agriculture, Mr. A. Sekhar, Chief Engineer, Central Water Commission, Mr. Michael Siromani, Director, National Disaster Management, Mr. D.N. Singh, Commissioner, Agriculture, Mr. T.N. Gupta, Executive Director, Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation and others accompanied the team.

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