Actor Prabhas has donated Rs 1 crore to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF), to aid people affected by the recent devastating floods that wreaked havoc in Chittoor, Kadapa, Nellore and Anantapur districts of the state. Earlier, many Tollywood stars including Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu and Jr NTR also contributed to the CMRF towards flood relief efforts in Andhra Pradesh. Each of them had contributed an amount of Rs 25 lakh to flood victims through CMRF.
The four districts in south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema received very heavy rains as a result of a depression over the Bay of Bengal from November 13 to November 20. More than 40 people lost their lives in the floods, About 1,402 villages in 196 mandals and four towns were affected by the rains, as the flood affected districts of Chittoor, Nellore, Anantapur and Kadapa received 11.1 cm of rainfall as against the normal rainfall of 3.2 cm, marking a deviation of 255.5%.
The YSRCP government has estimated the total losses due to the floods at Rs 6,054.29 crore, and has sought interim relief of Rs 1,000 crore from the Union government, to provide relief to flood affected families, and to restore damaged infrastructure. During a recent visit to flood-affected areas in Nellore district, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced that Rs 220 crore would be sanctioned for constructions and restoration works to prevent floods in the district in the future. The funds would be used for constructing bunds along the Penna river, and to take up apron repair works at the Somasila project, he said.
In October last year, Prabhas had donated Rs 1.5 crore for flood relief to the Telangana state CMRF. Prior to that, in March 2020, he donated Rs 4 crore towards COVID-19 relief — Rs 3 crore to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, and Rs 50 lakh each to the CMRF of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.