High alert sounded in East Godavari district

Kakinada: High alert has been sounded in East Godavari in view of the cyclone Phethai threat  to the district. District collector Kartikeya Mishra reviewed the cyclone preparedness through videoconference with officials of  stakeholder departments in coastal mandals from collectorate on Friday. He directed the officials not to opt for leave.  

The collector also directed the officials to keep ready the cyclone shelters to shift the people for safety in the  13 coastal mandals and to arrange kitchens there by deploying kitchen staff of schools, hostels in the district immediately. The collector also directed the civil supplies department to keep sufficient stocks of essential commodities and to ensure functioning  of MLS points continuously.

With regard to supply of drinking water, the collector directed the SE, RWS to keep generators at all PWS schemes and to keep three water tankers for each gram panchayat on hire basis for supply of drinking water. He directed the EPDCL officials to keep 100 more generators in addition to the available 81 generators in the district and to procure  sufficient electric poles.

With regard to clearance of roads, the collector directed the officials to keep one officer for every 10 KM for road clearance and to ensure clear connectivity to the gram panchayat roads to R&B roads .With regard to protection of crop, he directed the JD agriculture to ensure for transport of harvested paddy immediately to safer places  and directed the JD animal husbandry to shift animals to safer places  by providing sufficient fodder and medicines.

To meet the immediate expenses, the collector said that each tahsildar in the mandals of coastal area will be given Rs 3 lakh each and the panchayat secretary Rs 20,000. To safe guard the communication system, the collector directed the officials to inspect the celltowers of various companies to ensure back up for coming six to seven days.

The collector also directed the police department to keep VHF sets ready and to deploy five constables at relief camps. The collector said that he would monitor the preparedness personally along with team of senior officers like JC and Sub-collectors. A Mallikarjuna, JC, SVS Subba Lashmi DRO and officers of various stakeholder departments attended the videoconference.