Ahead of the Northeast monsoon expected in the third week of this month, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Monday chaired a meeting to review the steps being taken to tackle any situation that might arise. He also advised officials on other precautionary measures to be taken.
The CM instructed officials to ensure maintaining physical distancing norms and to ensure that not more than 50 persons are imparted with training at a time, for disaster management. He advised officials to create awareness among the general public in this regard.
Reviewing the number of identified relief camps and increasing them if necessary, keeping tree cutting machines and ensuring necessary human resources for work, maintaining public health by taking necessary precautionary measures and stocking up on essential commodities in ration shops were among the other aspects the CM addressed at the meeting.
An official release said a total of 4,133 vulnerable areas across the State were likely to be affected by the Northeast monsoon. A total of 43,409 ‘first responders’, including 14,232 women have been trained and a total of 5,505 police personnel and 691 home guards trained by the Tamil Nadu Disaster Response Force were ready to be involved in relief operations.
Efforts are on to create awareness among the general public and to publicise the State Emergency Helpline 1070, District Emergency Helpline 1077 and TNSMART -- mobile phone-based application, through print and electronic media.
Ministers O. Panneerselvam, Dindigul C. Sreenivasan, K.A. Sengottaiyan, P. Thangamani, S.P. Velumani, D. Jayakumar, K.P. Anbalagan, R. Doraikkannu, R.B. Udhayakumar, Chief Secretary K. Shanmugam, Director-General of Police J.K. Tripathy and other senior officials were part of the meeting.
Earlier, Mr. Shanmugam had on September 18, chaired a meeting of senior officials to review the steps being taken across the State to face the Northeast monsoon, where district-level coordinators were appointed to consolidate efforts in their respective districts.