Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Flood: The Centre is providing all necessary and timely assistance to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for flood relief and rescue efforts and an inter-ministerial central team will soon visit the affected areas of both the states.

Teams deployed for relief and rescue work

A senior Union Home Ministry official said on Friday that an inter-ministerial team will visit the spot and assess the damage. Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry Sanjeev Kumar Jindal said that 26 teams of the National Disaster Response Force ( NDRF ), eight helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF), three helicopters of the Indian Navy, and a Dornier aircraft have been deployed in Andhra Pradesh for rescue and relief operations.

He said seven NDRF teams, and two helicopters of the Indian Air Force have also been deployed in Telangana. "The central government is providing all necessary and timely assistance to the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in relief and rescue efforts," Jindal said in a statement.

Additional teams of NDRF were sent

He said that on the night of September 1, when many areas were affected by floods, on the instructions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, additional NDRF teams and Air Force helicopters were deployed to assist the state governments in relief and rescue operations. Jindal said, "On the instructions of the Home Minister, a central team of experts has been deployed to Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) to assess the issues of flood management, reservoir management, and dam safety on the spot and make recommendations for immediate relief from floods."

The NDRF team has so far rescued 350 people and evacuated about 15,000 people to safer places in Andhra Pradesh, and 68 people and evacuated about 3,200 people to safer places in Telangana. The Additional Secretary said an inter-ministerial central team has already been constituted and this team will soon visit the flood affected areas of both the states to assess the damage on the spot.

How many people have lost their lives so far?

The central team will give its recommendations to the Home Ministry for additional financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund. The statement said that the Director General of NDRF also visited Andhra Pradesh on September 2-3 to monitor the rescue and relief operations. Many districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been affected by rain and floods since the weekend, while 32 people have died due to floods in Andhra Pradesh so far.