Relief measures on warfooting: KCR

The Chief Minister annnounced the decision at a high level review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan here to take stock of the ongoing relief works in the State

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday announced ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of persons who died in rain-related incidents in the State. He also instructed officials to provide relief to people affected by rains and floods on a war-footing, and asked them to distribute rice, pulses and other essential items besides three blankets to every household on behalf of the State government.

Officials said 50 persons including 11 in GHMC area had lost their lives in rain-related incidents till Thursday. The crop loss across the State was estimated at Rs 2,000 crore. The Chief Minister also released Rs 5 crore to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to speed up relief operations.

The Chief Minister annnounced the decision at a high level review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan here to take stock of the ongoing relief works in the State. He issued specific directions to be implemented in the GHMC considering the impact the rains had on the city.

He assured the people that new houses will be given to those whose houses had collapsed during the deluge and the government will undertake repairs to partially damaged houses free of cost. He made it clear that the new houses will be built on alternative sites since the houses that collapsed were constructed on drains (nalas) in the city. He directed the officers to pump out water from low-lying areas and cellars of apartment complexes and cautioned them not to restore power till the last drop of water was drained out as restoration of power supply in such areas could cause death.

“It has been observed that many colonies that were submerged were built in the Full Tank Level (FTL) areas of tanks. This had led to severe problems with water flooding the cellars of residential complexes,” Chandrashekhar Rao said. He opined that building cellars that can withstand floods at the time of construction should be an option to ensure that such incidents do not recur. He suggested that the civic authorities henceforth must impose a condition on builders that parking or cellar areas of buildings have to be flood-proof. He wanted the GHMC authorities to use the services of Metro Water Works and Fire department to pump out flood water. He also advised the electricity department to prepare an action plan to remove all the High Tension power lines passing over residential areas.

Ministers KT Rama Rao, S Niranjan Reddy, Vemula Prashanth Reddy, Talasani Srinivas Yadav Mahmud Ali, Rytu Bandhu Samithi State Chairman Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Chief Advisor Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar. Transco and Genco CMD D Prabhakar Rao, TSSPDCL CMD G Raghuma Reddy, principal secretary agriculture B Janardhan Reddy , principal secretary municipal administration Arvind Kumar , Roads and Buildings principal secretary Sunil Sharma , principal secretary finance Ramakrishna Rao, secretary disaster management Rahul Bojja, GHMC commissioner Lokesh Kumar , Commissioner MUAD Satyanarayana Reddy , Hyderabad collector Swetha Mohanty, CM Chief Secretary Narsing Rao and secretary Smitha Sabharwal participated in the meeting.

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