Declare flood in state as national calamity: cm

Hyderabad, Oct 5 :

 The Chief Minister, K Rosaiah, on Monday urged the Centre and United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi to treat the flood fury as ‘national calamity.’ The Chief Minister, while submitting a memorandum to AICC Chief Sonia Gandhi, who came here to conduct an aerial survey in flood hit Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts, requested her to direct Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to allocate Rs 6,000 crore from National Calamity Contingency fund to rehabilitate flood hit victims in the state immediately.

In the aerial survey Sonia Gandhi was accompanied by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, AICC Andhra Pradesh Affairs Incharge Veerappa Moily, Chief Minister K Rosaiah and Pradesh Congress Committee Chief D Srinivas.

In the memorandum, the chief minister said that the state suffered a total damage to the tune of Rs 12,225 crore. The damage to the road network and power sector alone is Rs 10,000 crore. The loss to animal husbandry and fisheries and horticultural plantations is Rs 370 crore and Rs 1,005 crores. The damage to the housing is estimated at Rs 300 crore. The chief minister also wrote a letter to Prime Minisr Dr Manmohan Singh to declare the flood fury in the state as national calamity. Rosaiah also appealed to Centre to extend assistance in increasing rice quota to Rs 30 kgs each family in flood hit areas.