A day after a delegation from the central government led by Home Ministry Joint Secretary Sanjeev Kumar Jindal visited Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh to take stock of the damage caused by Cyclone Titli in the state's Uddanam region, the seven-member team met with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in the state’s capital Amaravati on Friday.
Jindal said that the team was satisfied with rescue and relief operations that were carried out by the state government and said that they would submit a detailed report to the Centre. Naidu told the team that they had calculated a total loss of Rs 3,673.10 crore that was incurred due to the cyclone and demanded that the Centre act quickly in providing financial aid.
“I spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone about the loss due to Cyclone Titli. I wrote a letter to him with full details of loss incurred. But there is no response from the Centre till date. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh came to Andhra Pradesh for a ground-breaking ceremony of their party office, but he did not visit the cyclone affected areas. That pained me a lot. We worked hard, did not even celebrate Dussehra. We have made arrangements that the victims get compensation within 20 days of the cyclone. While the state government is making all efforts, it is unfortunate that the Centre is not caring for Titli victims. I hope at least now, justice will be done,” Naidu was quoted as saying.
On Thursday, the central team travelled to the areas where massive damage occurred due to the cyclone. Many locals expressed their helplessness to the delegation as they had lost years of hard work, with coconut and cashew trees being uprooted, and said that their future was uncertain as it would take several years to plant and grow the trees again.
After meeting locals, the delegation also spoke to several district officials on the steps taken by the state government so far.
Last week, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that the cyclone had pushed the area back by two decades. He also said that normalcy would be restored by October 29.