VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed officials concerned to set up control rooms at eight places for preventing boat tragedies in the State. During a review meeting on the recent boat tragedy, he said those control rooms would be manned by 13 staff including three constables drawn from Water Resources, Police and Tourism Department. MROs will head the control rooms. The Chief Minister will inaugurate the construction of eight control rooms on November 21 and they will be functional within 90 days.
Jagan said there should be continuous information with the control room on the movement of boats, their routes and floods. He stressed the need for ban on liquor consumption in the boats. Breathe analyser tests should be conducted on staff, he said and directed officials to ensure that all the boats are equipped with GPS and wireless communication equipment.
“MRO will be in charge of the control room. If they ensure that there are no mishaps, based on their grading, two months salary should be given as an incentive. Permission should be given to boats only after thorough checking and it will make sure that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is followed. Periodic information should be available on the river flow,” he said. Jagan said that the control room staff should take responsibility for the trips in the river and the control room staff should be trained for three months.