Chief Secretary directs officials to be on alert in view of heavy rain forecast in Telangana for next 48 hours 

Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari on July 20 directed officials of different departments to be on alert in view of the heavy rain forecast across the State, particularly north Telangana districts, in the next 48 hours.

Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari on July 20 directed officials of different departments to be on alert in view of the heavy rain forecast across the State, particularly north Telangana districts, in the next 48 hours.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast heavy rains for erstwhile Medak, Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts while isolated rain are forecast in southern parts of the State. The government had stationed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel in Warangal, Mulugu and Kothagudem districts and a 40-member team has been kept ready for meeting any eventuality in the Greater Hyderabad limits. She confirmed that no damages were reported to roads and irrigation tanks from any district so far.

The Chief Secretary on Thursday convened a high level meeting to review the State’s preparedness. She said since water levels in all the projects were around 50% of their capacity, there was no concern even if there was heavy flooding. However, precautionary measures has been taken to ensure that there were no damages to tanks and reservoirs.

Water level at Bhadrachalam was 41.3 feet this morning and there was likelihood of issuing first warning signal by tonight. The continuous rainfall was conducive for agricultural activities. On the prevalence of water borne diseases, she said there were no complaints of gastroenterittis and other water borne diseases in the last four years, but steps had been initiated to chlorinate water in all the storage points in gram panchayats as well as municipalities.

The revenue, police, irrigation, panchayat raj, energy and R&B officials should ensure effective coordination in taking up preventive measures to avoid any untoward incidents. Reviewing the situation of the Kaleshwaram project, she wanted the Irrigation department officials to be cautious about the floods in view of the heavy rains in the catchment area.

GHMC commissioner Ronald Ross informed in the meeting that 426 monsoon emergency teams and 157 static teams were positioned in the GHMC limits in addition to deploying staff at 339 water logging points. Information relating to the water level in 185 tanks and other storage points was being obtained on a regular basis.