Hyderabad Rains: Army Deployed, NDRF at Work After 5-Day Alert
No respite for Hyderabad as IMD predicts another five days of rains. IT companies ask people to work from home.
advertisement
With heavy rains causing havoc in the capital and other parts of Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has ordered officials to set up control rooms in all the districts to reach out to marooned people with necessary relief.
At least 17 flood rescue teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been pressed into service at various rain-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana including parts of Hyderabad city, an official statement said on Sunday.
A team of 309 rescuers, equipped with 32 Inflatable Rubber Boats (IRBs) and latest communication equipment, have been “pre-positioned” at various rain-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh.
Three teams are pre-positioned at Peduguralu, Narsarapet and Amravati areas of district Guntur. One team each is pre-positioned at Hyderabad and Vizag while two teams each are pre-positioned at Srikakulam and Nellore districts.
The official statement said five flood rescue teams of NDRF comprising of 158 rescuers, equipped with 16 IRBs and communication equipment are pre-positioned at various flood prone areas of Telengana.
One team each is pre-positioned at Medak and Nizamabad and three teams separately are pre-positioned at Hyderabad.
Three flood rescue teams of NDRF comprising of 84 rescuers, equipped with 10 boats and communication equipment, are deployed at various flood prone areas of Karnataka.
One team each is pre-positioned at Bidar, Kalaburagi and Bengaluru districts, the statement said.
The NDRF team deployed at Kalaburagi, Karnataka carried out flood rescue operations and evacuated 21 marooned people to safer places.
In addition to above, 17 flood rescue teams of NDRF are also prepositioned across other states for quick response to flood-like situations.
The teams are in touch with the local administration and monitoring the situation round the clock, the release added.
Reddy district and 60-member National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team has been kept on the standby in the city.Four columns of the Army were deployed in Hyderabad and neighbouring Ranga.
The Met department has reportedly issued a five-day rainfall alert second alert was issued in the Bay of Bengal.
Some of the low-lying areas in Hyderabad are still cut off from the rest of the city, even as Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and some NGOs are offering essential food items such as milk towards relief of those affected.
The CM also instructed the officials to take necessary steps to prevent spread of communicable diseases.
Incessant rains continued to batter the city for the third day, prompting the Telangana government to ask IT companies to allow their employees in the city to work from home.
Reacting to the state government’s request, Nasscom sent an advisory to all its members asking them to allow employees to work from home.
The district administration of Rangareddy, Khammam, Warangal and Medak besides GHMC have declared holiday for educational institutions today also.
Four persons were killed and six others injured in separate rain-related incidents in Medak district on Friday. The death toll in the floods is now seven.
(With inputs from PTI , IANS and The Times of India.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)