Tel seeks liberal financial aid from Centre for rain damage

Telangana government today sought liberal financial assistance from Central government for the damage caused due to heavy rains that lashed the state in September this year.
A Central team of officials visited Hyderabad and other places in Telangana yesterday as well as today to ascertain the damage and also had a meeting with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao this evening.
Rao put the damage at Rs 2,400 crore as per preliminary estimates and urged the Centre to help the state liberally, stated a release from his office. He said a final report on the damage would be submitted to the Centre.

The Chief Minister explained to the team that heavy rains hit the state in the final week of September with 31 cms of rainfall being recorded on a day.
Heavy rains extensively damaged roads, especially in Hyderabad, apart from bridges, electricity poles and crops, he said.
The team had an interaction with state Chief Secretary Rajeev Sharma and other state government officials yesterday.

The leaders of opposition Congress and BJP have also met the Central officials and submitted separate memorandum.
The BJP has urged them to undertake a scientific study of the damage and help in providing relief to the farmers.

BJP alleged in its memorandum that the input subsidy of Rs 790 crore released by the Centre to the state on account of previous crop loss has not been distributed to the farmers who lost their crops.
"It also requested to instruct the state government to immediately distribute the input subsidy already released by Central government and also the one which is to be released on account of current crop loss occurred in September," the BJP has said.
Meanwhile, Siddipet district administration today sought financial help to the tune of Rs 212.44 crore from the Central team that visited the district to ascertain the damage caused by recent heavy rains.

The team witnessed a photo exhibition on the damage and interacted with district Collector P Venkatarama Reddy and other officials.