Union Home Minister Amit Shah undertook aerial survey of flood affected areas in Karnataka, Maharashtra

Union Home Minister Amit Shah undertook an aerial survey of flood-affected areas Belgavi district of Karnataka and Sangli and Kolhapur of Maharashtra on Sunday to take stock of the situation.

He was accomped by the Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines, Prahlad Joshi, Minister of State for Railways, Suresh Angadi, Member of Parliament, Prabhakar Kore and others.

Thereafter, Shah held a meeting at the Belagavi Airport to review the flood situation in the Karnataka.

"A presentation was made by the state government officers depicting the extent of damage and the rescue measures taken, including the NDRF teams deployed," stated the government press-release.

Shah enquired about the further forecast and was informed that further rain was not expected in that area and adjoining areas of Maharashtra in the next 2-3 days and the situation is likely to improve.

On the other hand, Aircraft assets of South Western Air Command continued High Availability Disaster Recovery missions in Kolhapur by positioning 1700 Kilograms of specialist life-saving drugs and medicines along with 22 personnel from Army Medical Corps from Pune airbase by 2 Avro aircraft.

In Karnataka at least 24 people have lost their lives while around 1,024 villages in 80 talukas of 17 districts have been affected due to floods caused by incessant rains in the region, according to the Chief Minister. So far, around 3.75 lakh hectare crop area, 14,000 houses and 478 km of power lines have been damaged due to floods in the state.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Yediyurappa had conducted an aerial survey and announced Rs 5 lakh compensation to next of kin of the deceased.

The Chief Minister had informed that over two lakh people have been evacuated from flood-affected areas and 1.61 lakh people are in 664 relief camps across the state.

It was announced that all schools, and colleges -- government and private -- in affected flood-hit districts will remain closed till August 15.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also visited the flood-affected areas in Belgaum.

( With inputs from ANI )