Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

Weavers pour out their woes

Staff Reporter

Central team members take stock of flood damage in three districts

GRAVITY CHECK: Central team members inspecting a handloom pit at Mangalagiri on Thursday.

GUNTUR: A two-member Central team accompanied by the State Government-appointed Special Officer for floods in Guntur Sashank Goel visited flood-hit areas in the district on Thursday evening.

The members interacted with weavers and members of their families to understand their problems due to flooding of looms and actual loss of livelihood per family. Weavers demanded a compensation of at least Rs.10,000 so that they could restart their work. They also sought yarn at subsidised prices.District Collector G. Jayalakshmi took around team members — Avinash Mishra and Shukla — to the inundated loom pits in Weavers' Colony at Mangalagiri. Local MLA Murugudu Hanumantha Rao explained the problems of the weavers and told the members about the initiatives taken by the Rajasekhara Reddy Government after `Ogni' hit the district.

Later, they left for Tenali and from there to Bapatla where they held a meeting late in the night. They would visit other areas on Friday morning. Meanwhile, the clouds cleared on Thursday noon, giving a sigh of relief to people of 10 affected mandals and district officials. Water slowly receded in Repalle and Bhattiprolu.

Vijayawada Staff Reporter adds: In all, six members came and they divided into three teams to cover Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts. Team chairman Vipin Kumar Saxena, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry for Home Affairs, and N. Pathak visited Krishna district.

Damaged paddy shown

Anxious farmers came out on the roads and narrated their tales of woe holding out damaged paddy to the members. The team visited Ungutur where farmers showed them how the damaged bridge led to the destruction of their nearby crops. Ffarmers told them that their crops were totally damaged. The team visited Amudalapalli, Koyyagurapadu, Vaddulameraka, Chigurulapadu and Puttagunta villages.

Loss put at Rs. 2,083 cr.

Hyderabad Special Correspondent writes: Earlier, a seven-member Central team, led by Vipin Kumar Saxena, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, arrived here from Delhi to assess the damage. The team went round a photo exhibition at Lake View guest house where Disaster Management Commissioner Preeti Sundan made a presentation on the havoc caused by the cyclonic storm. She put the property loss at Rs. 2,083 crores and sought an assistance of Rs. 1,191 crores.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Water-testing kit given to ratepayers' association
Weavers pour out their woes

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu