DISCUSSING A POINT: Member of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Marri Shashidhar Reddy (right) with MLAs -- Mandali Buddha Prasad and Devineni Rajasekhar -- and irrigation officials during a visit to the Krishna river bund in Vijayawada o n Sunday. — Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

VIJAYAWADA: The Planning Commission has constituted a working group on disaster management as part of its emphasis on the subject during the 10th Five-year Plan, according to National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member and MLA Marri Shashidhar Reddy.

Mr. Reddy, who arrived here on Sunday on a three-day visit to Krishna district, told newsmen that his fellow member Mohan Kanda had been drafted into the working group, which would examine how best the States could be supported in the area of disaster management.

Explaining the objective of his visit, Mr. Reddy said that he had been undertaking visits to several places in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, for which he had been named in-charge member within the NDMA.

Objective

"After visiting East Godavari district in the wake of floods there, I decided to visit Krishna district, which has also been ravaged by the recent floods," Mr. Reddy said.

Soon after his arrival at the Gannavaram airport by a scheduled flight, which landed an hour late, Mr. Reddy drove down to the city to visit the Krishna river bund at Police Lines.

Accompanied by MLAs - Mandali Buddha Prasad (Avanigadda), Devineni Rajasekhar (Kankipadu), Sk. Nasar Vali (Vijayawada West) and officials of the irrigation, revenue and Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, Mr. Reddy spent some time on the bund and tried to understand the proposals prepared by the irrigation officials to strengthen the bund in view of frequent floods.

On Monday, Mr. Reddy would visit the Budameru regulator at Velagaleru, and leave for Avanigadda via Pamarru.

He would visit a mangrove forest at Palakayatippa village near Saagara Sangamam in Koduru mandal.

The NDMA member would also visit some of the flood-affected areas in the mandals of Challapalli, Machilipatnam and Ghantasala.

On Tuesday, Mr. Reddy would have a meeting at Machilipatnam with District Collector Navin Mittal, officials of various departments and public representatives on the havoc wrought by the recent cyclonic rains. Flood mitigation measures, Budameru and sand-casting in Nandigama are some of the issues that would be discussed in the meeting.

After addressing a press conference in Vijayawada, Mr. Reddy would attend the concluding ceremony of a workshop on `Impact of natural disasters on handloom sector' at Hotel Ilapuram. He is scheduled to leave for Hyderabad by an evening flight on Tuesday.

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