AP cabinet clears 48 items and backs full relief for Cyclone Arnab victims; Naidu tells ministers to suspend local-poll rebels

The Andhra Pradesh cabinet met under Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday, 29 October, approved 48 items and decided that people hit by Cyclone Arnab would get full support from the state. The meeting was held in hybrid mode, and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan took part by video link.

Naidu asked officials to issue the government orders on compensation and to keep a damage report ready for the central teams. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said inter-ministerial teams will be sent to assess the damage. The state has already announced Rs 5 lakh for the family of each person who died in the cyclone and Rs 10,000 for every damaged house.

Boats and looms

Pawan Kalyan put the losses of the fishing villages before the cabinet. On the Uppada coast in U. Kothapalli mandal, 40 boats were damaged, he said, and 117 boats belonging to Uppada fishermen were damaged along the Konaseema district coast. He asked that fishermen all along the coastline be compensated quickly for boats, nets and other gear.

He also raised the case of the handloom weavers of Uppada, whose looms were flooded by the heavy rain, and asked that they too be helped. He praised the Chief Minister for putting lives and property first and for watching the cyclone warnings closely.

Rebels in the local polls

After the meeting, Naidu turned to the local body elections. He told the ministers in charge of districts that any party members still in the fray as rebels should be treated as suspended, and that the candidates finalised by the alliance were final. He made the ministers responsible for the alliance candidates’ wins in their own constituencies and in the districts they oversee.

Polling for the urban local bodies is on 1 November, with counting on 3 November.