Vijayawada: AP home minister Taneti Vanita has sought help from union government in evolving storm-proof coastal housing, so that lakhs of people need not be evacuated at the time of every cyclone.
Vanita was representing Andhra Pradesh at the third session of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) meeting held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Friday in presence of union home minister Amit Shah.
The AP minister pointed out that geography of Andhra Pradesh is such that the state experiences one or other disaster every year; sometimes multiple disasters in a single year.
Vanita maintained that under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Department of Disaster Management has been successful in dealing with disasters. Further, she said she is “very delighted” to say that the state has not experienced drought ever since YSRC has formed the government.
The minister, however, said cyclonic activities have been increasing continuously. Loss of agricultural and plantation crops had been huge during Cyclonic Storm Nivar in late November 2020.
Vanita thanked central government for helping AP with World Bank-funded National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) under which 219 Multi-Purpose Cyclone Shelters (MPCS) have been constructed in nine coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. “However, along with cyclone shelters, we need to improve coastal housing too, so that we may not require to evacuate lakhs of people every time during a cyclone,” she observed.
The minister underlined that coastal areas require a combination of mangrove and shelter belt plantations, apart from infrastructure like bridges, roads connecting cyclone shelters and saline embankments.
She said AP needs to protect its beaches and improve management of its shorelines. She sought cooperation from the union government for the same.
