Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asked senior power officials to ensure that there was no interruption in power supply due to heavy rains and wanted them to take up hydel generation wherever feasible as the irrigation projects were getting heavy flood.
Reviewing the flood and rain situation in the State with senior officials, Mr. Rao also asked them to see that they maintained coal stocks to meet power generation at thermal stations for one month.
The officials explained to him the obstacles caused to construction of Devadula lift-irrigation project due to rains. In response, Mr. Rao instructed Engineer-in-Chief of irrigation C. Muralidhar to take steps to evacuate water from the project.
They informed him that 1,600 out of 2,300 electric poles that fell in rain were re-erected. Wherever power supply was disrupted, alternative arrangement was made to maintain supply.
Mr. Rao ordered immediate steps to mitigate the hardship caused to public by overflow of water from streams, reservoirs and rivers. All departments must make coordinated effort to minimise life and property loss. He assessed inflow and outflow of major irrigation projects like Sriramsagar and enquired from them steps taken to shift people living in submergence areas to safer places.
He asked Endowments Minister A. Indrakaran Reddy over phone to camp near Kaddam project to supervise relief for people of 12 villages who were evacuated due to flood in the reservoir. Principal Secretary of Municipal Administration Arvind Kumar was asked to supervise relief operations in Nirmal and other submergence areas along river Godavari.
Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar was also asked to camp in Bhadrachalam and look after relief for evacuees from nearby villages due to rise in water level in Godavari.
Principal Secretary of Finance K. Ramakrishna Rao was asked to release money instantly for all relief measures. The Ministers and MLAs were asked to remain in their constituencies and districts respectively till the situation improved.
