The Indian Armed Forces have been at the forefront, providing much needed rescue and relief to the flood affected states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Four Army Columns, including medical teams, and equipped with motorised boats and two IAF helicopters yesterday remained engaged in relief operations.
In Andhra Pradesh, three Army Columns are deployed in Vijaywada district while another Army Column has been shifted from Kurnool to Guntur district. Following further improvement in the flood situation, two Army Columns have meanwhile been recalled from Kurnool and Guntur. The Navy has also stopped rescue and relief operations in Andhra Pradesh. In Karnataka, one more body was located by a Naval team from Uttar Kannada district yesterday. With this, bodies of all 19 missing people have been recovered and the Naval team has returned to its Karwar base after district authorities called off the rescue operations. Two IAF helicopters carried out four sorties yesterday, airlifting 3.55 tons of relief materials and two people. Since IAF undertook rescue and relief operations, 32 aircraft and choppers have so far carried over 209 tons of rescue and relief materials, besides airlifting around 1,100 people including medical and rescue teams and marooned villagers who were rescued.
To coordinate the relief operations in the flood affected states, the Armed Forces have established two flood relief coordination cells, one at Secunderabad and the other at Bangalore, for close liaisoning with the State Governments, besides coordinating with the NDMA in carrying out relief operations. A meeting was held at the Integrated Defence Staff Headquarters in New Delhi with the Resident Commissioners of the two states wherein modalities for rescue and relief operations were fine-tuned. The Armed Forces have so far rescued over 3,600 people in the two flood-ravaged states.
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