CM reviews relief operations

Hyderabad, Oct 25 : Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Friday reviewed the rescue and relief operations following heavy rains in many parts of the State with Ministers and top officials at Secretariat. He asked the officials to step up the relief operations on war footing and assist the affected people.

The Chief Minister directed the Health Department to make available more medical teams and adequate medicines. He has directed the Chief Secretary and other officials to constantly monitor the situation and relief operations. Officials said that heavy rains will continue for next 24 hours in Telangana and few other parts.

Ministers Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, Botsa Satyanarayana, Pithani Satyanarayana, K.Parthasaathy, Ponnala Lakshmiah, Chief Secretary Dr.P.K.Mohanty, DGP B.Prasada Rao, Commissioner, Disaster Management, Dr T Radha, Principal Secretary, Health, Ajay Sawhney, Commissioner, Agriculture, Madhusudan Rao, Addl. GM, south Central Railway, P.N.Pandey and other officials attended the meeting.

The Chief Minister said that people who lost their houses and utensils etc. will be adequately compensated as per norms.

The death toll in the present rains rose to 20. More than 135 relief camps have been opened and 68,000 people were moved to safer places and relief camps. Crops inundated is estimated to be in 4.34 lalh hectares and out of this 2 lakh hectares is cotton. 10 NDRF teams are already reached the areas and are engaged in relief works. Rains were reported to be heavy to very heavy in districts like Nalgonda, Mehbubnagar, Prakasam, West Godavari and Visakhapatnam.

As far as Hyderabad City is concerned, heavy rains lashed many areas and many places there are water logging particularly in low lying areas. Hussainsagar is full and if there are any more heavy rains, there will be some discharge of water from the outlets. Vamsadhara was raising but latest reports show it started receding. Bahuda river is also raising.

The South Central Railway reported that some trains have been diverted and some slowed down but there are no cancellations so far. APSRTC have also cancelled some buses particularly the routes where the bus has to cross streams and lakes. INN