Odisha govt fears high flood in Mahanadi system, alerts 13 collectors

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 5:

Apprehending high flood in the Mahanadi river system, the Odisha government today asked collector of 13 districts to remain on high alert.

“We are apprehending a high flood in the Mahanadi system. The volume of floodwater at Khairamal has gone up significantly since we gave you the last update at 11 am. About 10.68 lakh cusecs of water was flowing through the barrage every second by 3 PM today. Going by this calculations, it is expected that 12-12.5 lakh cusecs of floodwater would flow through Mundali barrage in Cuttack by tomorrow noon from where it would reach the Mahanadi delta by afternoon on Thursday,” Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Mohapatra told reporters after a review meeting conducted at the state secertariat this afternoon by chief minister Naveen Patnaik through videoconferencing  with collectors of the 13 districts likely to be affected by floods.

Stating that 14 lakh cusecs of floodwater had passed through the Mundali Barrage in the high flood in Mahanadi of 2011, Mohapatra said though the volume of floodwater is expected to be less this year, precautionary measures have been taken.

“We have asked the collectors of districts in the Mahanadi basin to keep a close watch on major embankments of the river with regular patrolling of engineers in the presence of a magistrate. We have received confirmation from these collectors about the arrival of ODRAF and NDRF teams, who would be engaged in the evacuation of people from the low-lying areas. We have also made provisions for dispatch of cattle feed to all these districts,” the SRC informed.

During videoconferencing with the collectors, the chief minister discussed with them preparatory measures like evacuation of people living in low lying areas to safer places, deployment of ODRAF and NDRF teams, free kitchen for people at the relief centres, supply of drinking water, relief items and cattle feed, health and sanitation and deployment of medical and veterinary teams.

The collectors of Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Puri, Nayagarh, Khordha, Boudh, Sambalpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Baleswar, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts participated in the videoconferencing.

The chief minister asked the collectors to cancel the leave applications of all government staff and allot additional charge to the BDO of the nearby block in the absence of the concerned BDO.

Among others, Development Commissioner AP Padhi, DGP Sanjib Marik, additional chief secretary, Revenue, Tara Dutt, principal secretaries and secretaries of all departments were present.