New Delhi: Many areas of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh received torrential rains for the third consecutive day. This has disrupted normal life. Rivers and streams are in spate. Due to continuous rains, low lying areas have been flooded, crops have been damaged. Roads and railways have been blocked. Due to waterlogging and damage to tracks at many places, 432 trains have been cancelled while the routes of 139 have been changed.

Due to rain, crops in more than 1.5 lakh acres of area were damaged 

NDRF, Army and other agencies are engaged in relief and rescue operations. 16 people died in Telangana and 15 in Andhra Pradesh due to this natural disaster. Crops in more than 1.5 lakh acres of area have been damaged. The state government has estimated the loss to be around Rs 5,000 crore and has sought immediate assistance of Rs 2,000 crore from the Center. It has also demanded that the flood be declared a national disaster. About 4.5 lakh people have been affected by the flood in Andhra Pradesh too.

Such floods occurred in Telangana after three decades

Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of those killed in the floods and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the affected areas and declare the floods a national disaster. He said the state government would submit a comprehensive report to the Centre on the damage caused by the floods. Khammam district has suffered heavy losses due to the floods. Such a flood has occurred here after three decades.

There may be heavy rain in these districts in the next 24 hours 

The Meteorological Department has predicted heavy rains in 11 districts including Adilabad, Jagityal, Kamareddy, Komaram Bheem Asifabad, Medak, Medchal Malkajgiri, Nizamabad, Peddapalli, Sangareddy in the next 24 hours. On the other hand, 4.5 lakh people have been affected by heavy rains and floods in Andhra Pradesh in the last three days. 31,238 people have been shifted to 166 relief camps. The most affected districts include NTR, Guntur, Krishna, Eluru, Palnadu, Bapatla and Prakasam.

20 SDRF and 19 NDRF teams are engaged in relief and rescue operations. Nine NDRF and two more SDRF teams have left for the worst-affected Vijayawada. Two Air Force helicopters have been deployed for search and rescue operations in the affected areas of Guntur and NTR. The floods have damaged about 1.65 lakh hectares of crops in 20 districts.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi called upon Congress leaders and workers to provide all possible help in relief and rescue operations. He demanded the Central Government and Andhra Pradesh Government to provide rehabilitation package to the disaster affected people as soon as possible.