CHENNAI: Handing out a series of instructions to all officials, particularly district collectors, on girding up for the North East monsoon, Chief Secretary N Muruganandam said all the precautionary measures that had been initiated at different levels should be completed before the rains begin in October.
Presiding over a meeting on monsoon preparedness at the Secretariat on Saturday, the Chief Secretary insisted on expediting the work on a war footing for the construction and clearance of storm water drains, removal of weeds and plants like water hyacinth from the water bodies and identification of sites for setting up relief camps.
Collectors from all over the State took part in the proceedings through video conference and were told firmly that the speedy completion of the work on different fronts should not inconvenience the common people in any way.
Secretaries of various departments, top police officers and other senior bureaucrats attended the meeting that was a follow up on the various instructions earlier given to different officers at various points of time.
The Minister of Municipal Administration, K N Nehru, had earlier told officers of the Chennai Corporation to complete all flood prevention work undertaken before the end of September.
Muruganandham himself had visited the various work sites in Chennai recently to prevail upon the officials for the need for speedy execution of the preventive measures.
Chief Minister M K Stalin is particular about preventing Chennai and other parts of the State getting flooded during the monsoon time as it had happened in the past. The lack of maintenance of the storm water drains and the failure to desilt water bodies into which excess water normally flowed into had caused the flooding in many places.
Some parts of Chennai are particularly prone to floods and many such localities are in the newly developed areas of the city. Ever since the DMK government took charge, it has been giving extra importance in ensuring the prevention of floods.
So the government had organized a series of monsoon preparedness meetings in the various districts in the past one week with the district collectors chairing the sessions and giving instructions to officials at the grassroots levels on how to prevent disasters and devastations.
