Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena said 74 specially trained police personnel and 16 from Fire and Rescue Services department, constituting the disaster management team, are ready to undertake relief and rescue operations during the north-east monsoon season.
Talking to reporters after inspecting relief and rescue demonstrations at Ariyaman beach near here on Saturday, he said the trained personnel, including swimmers, split into four groups, were provided with vehicles and equipment to move to vulnerable places in minimum time after receiving distress calls.
They were provided with life and reflective jackets, helmets with torch and search lights, pumpsets and other equipment to carry out the relief and rescue operations, he said, adding 38 places in river catchment areas in the district have been identified as vulnerable areas in the moderate category.
He said a district emergency operation centre and emergency control room had been established to attend to distress calls from the public and alert the rescue teams. The emergency control room would function round the clock, he said adding public could contact it by calling toll free numbers of 1077 and 230060 in case of an emergency.
To accommodate people in the vulnerable areas in the event of flooding, 32 places such as schools, shelter homes and tsunami relief buildings had been identified. Excess strengths of police and fire and rescue service personnel had been deployed in the police stations of Ramanathapuram Bazaar, Thirupullani, Thondi and Mandapam, he said.
The police strength had been mobilised to coordinate with district administration, public works department, health and other departments to prevent loss of life, cattle and property, the SP said.
Mr. Ashok Kumar Das, Inspector General of Police (technical services), who is the monitoring officer for the district from the police side, held discussions with him and Collector S. Natarajan and gave necessary instructions, the SP added.