The district administration in Kodagu was directed to ensure all precautionary measures are in place to handle any eventuality during the current monsoon season.
At a review meeting to assess the level of prepardeness held at Madikeri on Wednesday, the district in-charge secretary V.Anbu Kumar asked the officials to be geared up to handle the exigences arising out of a possible landslide or flood.
He took stock of the preparations for both COVID-19 and the possible floods and told the officials that the district could experience higher than normal rains that could lead to flooding and landslides. Hence the officials were directed to be vigilant in disaster-prone areas and have men and material ready for any emergency relief works. The district adminitration in Kodagu has identified 32 gram panchayats as being vulnerable to rain-related damage.
Deputy Commissioner B.C. Satish said that though the rains in the district so far were below normal, there were good pre-monsoon showers. He pointed out that nodal officers had been appointed for all the 16 hoblis in the district and relief centres have been identified to accommodate those affected by the natural calamity.
Task Forces have been constituted at the gram panchayat level to handle any eventuality and for greater coordination and a control room (1077) was manned on a 24x7 basis, accordinig to Mr.Satish. Besides, the NDRF team was camping in the district and scientists from Karnataka Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre too were camping in the district, according to the deputy commissioner.
He said 44 houses had been damaged due to rains so far during the current year.
The local authorities across the district have ramped up their flood preparedness by inducting rescue boats, said Mr. Satish. The CESC authorities were directed to ensure that they have a stockpile of eletricity poles to replace the ones damaged due to heavy rains and gale in the weeks ahead. District Health and Family Welfare offier R.Venkatesh, Kodagu ZP CEO Bhanvar Singh Meena and others were present.
