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Day before yesterday, a devastating cyclone that struck Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Orissa caused a lot of hardship to the people and loss of many lives. I express my sympathies to our fellow citizens who had to face such a difficult time. The entire nation along with Government of India is standing firmly behind people of Andhra Pradesh and Vizag and the government will extend all possible help.

From the first day itself, the use of technology was done with perfection. In this Cyclone, the Metrological Department used the technology very well and had given the indications of such occurrence from the 6th of this month itself. The department correctly predicted the velocity and direction of the winds and the time of its hitting the coastal areas. In a way, the technology helped taking precautionary measures in advance and reducing the effect of the disaster.

Second most important thing is that when central and state governments work in tandem and channelise their energy in right direction, problems of any extent can be tackled effectively. As far as the current crisis is concerned both the central and the state governments worked in close coordination continuously for five days and they were nicely complemented by the local bodies. I wish to salute the people of Vizag as they not only followed the government orders but also maintained discipline and that made our task of executing rescue operations easier. Despite all the difficulties, you must yourselves have experienced that it was a massive cyclone.

You kept patience … I went far today and did an aerial survey which included cyclone-affected parts of Orissa. I would once again like to assure you that government of India will always support the Andhra Government to get out of this difficult time. Many Central Government establishments that have suffered heavy damages – the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Railways, the Airlines and the National Highways and officials from Government of India will come and we will take care of all these things once a comprehensive survey is done.

Till date the information I have, we will carry out a detailed survey and a Government of India team will also come. This was the harvesting season for the farmers and therefore the farmers have also suffered heavy losses. The damage to agriculture will also be assessed. I will talk to insurance companies too to send their teams for agricultural survey and to take stock of the damage to properties. I would also earnestly ask the people from the private insurance companies to listen to the grievances sympathetically work out plan to clear claims of affected people immediately.

The work is enormous in the given circumstance, especially in view of the fact that Andhra Pradesh is a newly created state and lot of things are not in place. In this situation, the state is faced with such an enormous calamity. On the other hand, just 15 days ago I was very excited with the dream of making Vizag a smart city but now suddenly we are facing such a challenge. I believe, we will come out of this test and everything will be normalised soon. Priority has been given to three things – restoring electricity, water supply and communication systems. After a few hours, improvement in these fields will be visible.

I have specially deputed a central government representative for this purpose only. Andhra Pradesh Government is working with full force. The immediate requirement of basic public convenience will become operational immediately. Though the complete assessment has not yet been done, yet I have announced Rs. 1000 crore as an interim assistance from the central government.

Anyway after the complete survey the central government will extend all necessary help to Andhra and Vizag to deal with the problems. We have granted Rs. 2 lakh to the kith and kin of those who have lost their lives and Rs. 50,000 to those who have been injured in the cyclone from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund of Government of India.

Thank You!

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AKT/SH