Central team to visit Telangana from today to assess damage due to floods

A six-member inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) will arrive in the state on Monday to assess the damage caused by recent heavy rains and floods in several districts. The team will be led by Kunal Satyarthi, advisor, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). It will comprise officials from agriculture, finance, jal shakti, power, road transport and highways, national remote sensing centre and department of space.

The union ministries and departments have been asked to submit details of fund allocation, release of funds and expenditure incurred during the last four years (from 2019-20 to 2022-23) in Telangana, under various schemes to the team leader.

Upon assessment of damages based on IMCT visit and detailed report on losses to be submitted by the state government and subsequent second visit of IMCT, if necessary, the final report will be submitted to the disaster management division



in the Union home ministry.

However, the state government's stand towards the central team is being eagerly watched in the wake of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao's announcement in Khammam in March when a few districts witnessed huge crop loss due to heavy rains. Rao had stated that the state government will not submit crop loss report to the Centre as a protest for being financial assistance when Telangana suffered heavy rains in the previous years. 

The Chief Minister declared compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre on behalf of the state government. He bemoaned that the Centre just sends its teams to Telangana to assess the damage but does not extend any financial assistance later.

It remains to be seen if the state government submits a report on flood loss to the visiting central team on Monday or not.