Centre Team Assesses Cyclone Montha Damage in Prakasam District

Nellore: A central team visiting Prakasam district on Monday took stock of the damage caused by Cyclone Montha and assured the state that a detailed report would be submitted to the Centre soon.

The high-level inter-ministerial team comprising P. Pousumi Basu, Mahesh Kumar, Shashank Shekhar Roy and Sai Bhagirath, along with

Prakhar Jain, managing director of the state disaster management authority, visited several cyclone-affected areas.

The team was received at Ongole’s NSP Guest House by district collector Raja Babu, joint collector Gopalakrishna and DRO China Obulesu, who briefed them on the extensive damage to property across the district.

The collector informed the team that the cyclone severely impacted agriculture, fisheries, roads, irrigation projects, panchayat raj infrastructure, rural water supply, power distribution and Ongole city itself.

A photo exhibition and a video presentation were arranged to show the extent of the destruction, the pre and post-cyclone conditions and the relief measures taken by the local and state administrations.

During field inspections at Alluru and Koppolu, MLA Damacharla Janardhan Rao and OUDA chairman Shaik Riyaz explained how both farmers

and prawn/fish cultivators suffered severe financial setbacks. They submitted detailed reports to the team, seeking generous central assistance for post-cyclone recovery.

The team inspected paddy fields in Alluru, where farmers expressed distress over total crop loss due to stagnant floodwaters that rotted plants from the roots. “You’ve lost everything,” one official remarked with considerable empathy.

The central tem also visited the Alluru tank, where breaches were narrowly averted through timely intervention by the district authorities. Engineering officials briefed the team on the damaged culverts and the preventive measures taken.

At Nagulapalem, the team observed severe damage to cotton fields, where fungal infection made replanting impossible this season.

Collector Raja Babu reported that cotton was the worst-affected crop, with 8,313 hectares damaged, followed by paddy (1,557 ha), vegetables (1,388 ha), maize (1,260 ha), pulses (26 ha), groundnut (17 ha), and red gram (89 ha) — totalling 12,570 hectares of crop loss across the district.

At Ongole’s grievance hall, Santanutalapadu MLA BN Vijay Kumar, state agriculture mission vice-chairman Srinivas Reddy, and representatives of farmers’ associations submitted memoranda urging the central government to extend immediate relief and rehabilitation assistance to

the affected families.

The central team concluded its visit, promising to recommend adequate support after compiling its findings from ground-level assessments.