Naidu asks PM to declare Uttarakhand floods as national disaster

Hyderabad, June 23 : Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday demanded that the Centre declare the Uttarakhand floods as national disaster.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister D Manmohan Singh, Naidu demanded that the Centre should bear all the expenses of rescue, relief and rehabilitation from the calamity relief funds. He also requested the Prime Minister to declared health emergency in the flood-affected areas of Uttarakhand.

Expressing concern over high number of causalities, the TDP chief said that an ex-gratia of Rs10 lakh each should be paid to the families who lost their bread earner.

Naidu also requested the Prime Minister to make special efforts to rescue the pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh. Stating that of nearly 10,000, only 3,000 pilgrims from the State have reached safe places, he demanded immediate steps to trace and rescue the remaining pilgrims.

Naidu said while the efforts made so far by the army is laudable, still the efforts have to be stepped up in view of the huge task to be performed in a time bound manner on a war footing basis.

Lauding the services being rendered by Indian Army and other personnel, he said that measures should also be taken for safe return of affected persons to their homes. INN