‘Precautionary measures in place’

589 teams formed: revenue official

Several wings of the State government are working in tandem to put in place well-organised preparatory measures in view of the heavy rain that has been lashing the northern districts over the past few days, Commissioner of Revenue Administration K. Satyagopal said here on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Satyagopal said the government has identified 4,399 vulnerable areas across the State and constituted 589 inter-departmental zonal teams comprising officials from the revenue, police, fire and rescue, fisheries, agriculture, horticulture, rural development and public works departments.

As the participation of communities is significant in the disaster management process, the government has identified 23,329 first responders, including about 6,700 women.

“These are young people, who are capable of helping in case of an emergency,” he said.

The government has desilted several thousand waterbodies and rivers to the tune of 12,070 km. “A total of 33,612 waterbodies were desilted and soil (known as vandal ) to the tune of 5.06 crore cubic metre was recovered and it benefited over six lakh farmers. The desilting has increased the capacity of the waterbodies by about 1.75 tmc,” he said.

Pump sets kept ready

De-watering pump sets have been kept ready to counter the menace of inundation in several flooded areas. Over 3,600 public buildings and 105 multi-purpose evacuation centres have been kept ready to house people. “Special care has been taken to house women, children, the disabled and the elderly,” he said.

To review the measures taken already, he would hold a meeting after the current spell of rain was over so that some mid-course correction could be undertaken, he said.

The Revenue Department will have a review meeting of District Collectors on Friday and a meeting with the Chief Secretary for rain-affected districts will be held, he added.