Revenue and Disaster Management Minister R.B. Udayakumar on Wednesday said the district authorities in low-lying areas along the Cauvery have been instructed to take adequate measures to tackle the prevailing flood situation due to heavy discharge of water from the Mettur, Bhavani Sagar and Amaravathi dams. The discharge is estimated to touch 2 lakh cusecs at Mayanur.
“People have been instructed to move to safer places. The district administrations in Dharmapuri, Salem, Erode, Namakkal, Karur, Tiruchi, Ariyalur, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore have been told to instruct people not to engage in swimming or fishing during the water discharge from Cauvery sources,” he told reporters in Chennai.
People living in low-lying areas had been asked to move to safer locations and not to take selfies in front of water bodies, Mr. Udayakumar said.
The Minister said though announcements were being made through loudspeakers to people in low-lying areas, the administrative officials had been instructed not to create panic among the public.
Inter Departmental Zonal Teams were closely monitoring the situation, he said. He noted that the Indian Meteorological Department had warned of heavy rain in certain parts of Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Theni, Dindigul and Tirunelveli districts on August 15 and 16, and that fishermen had been asked not to go fishing in the Bay of Bengal.
