Telangana: In a view of continuous heavy rain across Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today announced that all government offices, including schools, colleges, and educational institutions in the state, will remain on Tuesday on account of the heavy rain warning issued for September 28 and 29.
Following KCR’s instructions, chief secretary Somesh Kumar directed the general administrative department (GAD) to take appropriate action directed by the chief minister. However, Kumar has also asked all the emergency departments like Revenue, Police, Fire, Municipal, Roads and Buildings, and others to be on emergency duty to ensure that no property or lives are lost due to heavy rains.
Due to heavy rains in Hyderabad city, rivers and streams are overflowing and the flood-like situation has occurred in many places across the city.
Two more gates of the Osman Sagar were opened by the water board authorities here today on account of heavy rains (due to cyclone Gulab) leading to excess inflows into the lake. In total, four out of 15 gates of the Osman Sagar have been opened as of now, while one out of Himayat Sagar’s 17 gates remains open.
A year after facing the deluge, the residents of Hyderabad’s Osman Nagar will again have to spend sleepless nights in fear of flood if water from an adjoining lake inundates the colony due to heavy rains.
The cyclone Gulab on Monday has led to several low-lying areas in the city getting inundated, triggering waterlogging in several places, causing massive traffic jams, and many parts of the city also witnessed power cuts due to strong winds for several hours.
The Greater Hyderabad municipal cooperation’s (GHMC) Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV&DM) Director has asked the people to stay indoors.
The GHMC has declared a high alert. And in the view of cyclone Gulab, the Indian Meteorological Department on Monday has also warned of heavy to very heavy rains in Hyderabad for the next two days i.e., 28th and 29th September.
Telangana governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan made a telephonic call to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on Monday evening and enquired about the rain situation in the State.
Concerned over the incessant and heavy rains, the Governor asked about the preparedness of the administrative and relief machinery.
The Chief Secretary explained to the Governor that NDRF teams were kept ready in all the districts and Control rooms were also set up.
Soundararajan suggested Kumar keep the entire administrative machinery on high alert round-the-clock monitoring.