NCMC reviews the rescue and relief operations in Tamil Nadu floods The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) met today under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary, Shri Pradeep Kumar Sinha to review the flood situation in Tamil Nadu. The Cabinet Secretary took a detailed review of the flood situation including the rescue and relief measures undertaken by Tamil Nadu government and assistance provided by central government. Chennai did not experience heavy rainfall since yesterday and the flood waters are receding. NDRF, and Armed forces sent by Government of India have rescued more than 28000 persons. As the need for rescue has come down, the 50 NDRF teams and 13 army columns deployed are now more pressed into relief services rather than rescue. Road connectivity has been restored. City bus service is functioning. Power supply has been restored to more than 90% of the city. Railways continue to operate special intra-city and outstation services. Normal service is expected to begin from Monday. Restoration of Chennai airport is on the way and will be completed in a day or two. Meanwhile the operation of the civilian flights from the Naval Air Base in Arakonam is continued. As telecom services are not fully functional, the Cabinet Secretary has directed that necessary steps should be taken to restore the same at the earliest. Tamil Nadu government will hold a meeting with telecom service providers today to sort out the issues. To make the POL products available, Ministry of Petroleum will facilitate the same. Seven truck loads of dry ready-to-eat food provided by Ministry of Food Processing Industries have already reached Chennai and 20 are on the way. Railways supplied 2 lakh bottles of drinking water and 2 lakh more will be provided. Three naval ships carrying relief materials also have reached Tamil Nadu. The Chief Secretary, Tamil Nadu informed that a massive cleaning operation is being undertaken to prevent epidemics and spread of diseases. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will send a high level team to assess the situation in Tamil Nadu and to provide help. It was agreed that Post-Flood dos and donts prepared by NDMA should be widely publicized to educate people. NDMA also suggested that TN government should take steps to mark the HFL (High Flood Level) in all places to enable preparation of a future Mitigation and Preparedness plan. Chief Secretary Tamil Nadu thanked Government of India for providing necessary help in Emergency Response to face this worst ever disaster in Chennai. Ministries and agencies concerned with relief and rescue such as MHA, NDMA, HQ IDS, Power, Railways, Health and Family Welfare, Petroleum, Air force, Food Processing attended the meeting. In addition the Principal Resident Commissioner of Tamil Nadu was also present in the meeting. From Tamil Nadu, the Chief Secretary, Relief Commissioner, Home Secretary and other officers dealing with response also attended the meeting through video conference facility.
