Be pro-active. This was the message conveyed to the revenue divisional officers from as many as 16 districts, who were briefed on the steps to be taken in the wake of rains being reported in many parts of Tamil Nadu in the last couple of days.
The State Revenue Minister Thoppu N. D. Venkatachalam, who chaired the meeting, has appealed to all the revenue staffs to be vigil round-the-clock. Continuous rains may result in overflowing of tanks. In some places, there may be floods. Low lying areas may be inundated. The revenue authorities had the responsibility to save lives and cattle from such natural catastrophe.
By taking pro-active steps, the situation could be well managed. The State government, under the leadership of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, is fully aware of the measures to be taken in such circumstances. The officials should prevail upon the people, especially, those living close to river bed areas to move to safer places.
The revenue staffs may use the technology which could reveal data on the pattern of rain – moderate or heavy – and act accordingly. The district administration shall act independently on such crisis and need not wait for instructions from their superiors in distributing relief measures to needy, the minister told the meeting.
State Cooperatives Minister Sellur K. Raju, Principal Secretary Rajeev Ranjan, Commissioner Land and Revenue Administration Jatindranath Swain, Land Reforms (Director) J. Chandrakumar, Madurai Collector Anshul Mishra, DRO R.P. Raveendran, MLAs A.K. Bose, M. V. Karuppiah, Corporation Deputy Mayor R. Gopalakrishnan and the RDOs from Coimbatore, Dindigul, Kanyakumari, Karur, Madurai, Namakkal, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga, Thanjavur, Theni, Tirupur, Tuticorin, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli and Virudhunagar districts participated, a press release said.
