THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government on Friday convened an online meeting of district collectors to initiate measures to tackle rain emergencies as weather watchdogs have forecast heavy rain in state over the next five days. Speaking on the occasion, Revenue Minister K Rajan said that the state is fully prepared to tackle rain emergencies and 3,071 buildings have been marked to set up relief camps. Over four lakh people can be housed in these camps, the minister added.
Weather forecasters have predicted heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning for the next few days. Fishing ban has been imposed on Kerala and Lakshadweep coasts till Sunday and Karnataka coast till Tuesday on account of adverse weather conditions. Currently 69 people belonging to 23 families are being accommodated in five rescue camps in the state. Control rooms that function round-the-clock have been set up at taluk and district levels to coordinate rescue and relief activities.
The minister said a special order has been issued to pay Rs 25,000 as advance amount to village officers to coordinate emergency operations. The minister directed officials to give priority while taking decisions on applications received in taluk and village offices for felling trees as strong winds are likely to accompany rain. Desilting of rivers and other water bodies is progressing, he said.
The government, the minister said, has formed incident response teams at district and taluk levels and their training is going on. The meeting decided to pay special attention to plantation areas. The minister also reviewed details of meetings attended by the District Disaster Management Authorities and elected representatives in the districts.