Nellore: Administration gears up for rescue, relief measures

Nellore: The district administration is ready to brace for the cyclone and has deployed special officers in all vulnerable mandals to monitor the situation, said Agriculture Minister K Govardhan Reddy here on Friday.

He said the administration has already set up round-the-clock control rooms at the district headquarters for alerting teams deployed for support.

He held a review meeting with the officials at the Collectorate here and said they had alerted the fishermen stuck in the sea and they safely reached the coast. He said they had declared a holiday for schools on Friday and there are public holidays on Saturday and Sunday.

He asked the officials to coordinate with each other for providing relief and rehabilitation activities in the district.

He said they had identified possible areas vulnerable for inundation in the city and the people were being shifted to relief centres as a preventive measure. Civic officials are ready with equipment to clear waterlogging in the city and asked the people to contact the control room for any support.

He said the Medical and Health department has kept medicines ready for the elderly and children and he asked the agriculture department to complete e-crop registrations quickly.

He asked the irrigation officials to observe water levels in the Somasila, Kandaleru and other huge tanks and release excess water regularly for managing the water bodies giving no trouble to the nearby villages.

He asked the Transco officials to keep a tab on developments and arrange transformers and other poles instantly after the cyclone and they should get ready with the required materials. He said there are two NDRF teams and one SDRF team positioned in Nellore for taking up immediate relief measures.

The Minister said 1077 has been operational for the last three days and staff members of all sachivalayam should be vigilant and should inform the district administration about the situation in their areas promptly. He said civil supplies officials have kept essential commodities ready for distribution after the cyclone.

Govardhan Reddy said woodcutters, JCBs and generators were made available and the staff members would take up relief operations and measure to ensure free movement of traffic. He said farmers in the district should take preventive measures to protect crops and stocks from damage due to heavy rains.

District Collector KVN Chakradhar Babu, SP Ch Vijaya Rao, Joint Collector R Kurmanath, city Municipal Commissioner D Haritha and other senior officials were present.