Cyclone Tauktae: Eight relief camps set up in Karnataka

Bengaluru, May 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) Karnataka Revenue Minister R. Ashoka on Saturday said that in view of cyclone Tauktae eight relief camps have been set up in three coastal districts that can accommodate around 10,000 people, where food and other basic amenities will be made available to them.

Ashoka who had chaired the meeting along with Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the state disaster management team and officials, said: "District administrations and police departments are on alert. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams are also on alert ad will come to the rescue of people."

The Minister, who is also Vice-Chairman of Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, said that a total of about Rs 95 crore is reserved with the district administrations for utilisation to mitigate the situation arising out of the cyclone Tauktae and come to the rescue of people in need.

"Udupi has Rs 23 crore, Uttara Kannada Rs 60 crore and Dakshin Kannada Rs 12 crore," he added.

While Karnataka's Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the cyclone Tauktae is likely to gain intensity by Saturday evening or night in the coastal areas, as a result the three coastal districts - Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada will likely receive heavy rains.

He said that heavy rains are expected in coastal and neighbouring four to five districts like Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Shivamogga, Kodagu and the effect of this cyclone is expected to be there till May 18.

The Home Minister also added that all the necessary equipment that were procured recently, boats and vehicles have been deployed to tackle the situation.

"Around 1,000 trained personnel from fire force, police, coastal police, home guards, SDRF have been deployed in the three coastal districts and they will work with coordination in rescue and relief operations.

A total of 434 men are there under SDRF, Bengaluru and Kalaburagi teams are being sent to Udupi and Mangaluru," he added.

Both the Ministers underlined that if the situation warrants, the state has drawn-up elaborate plans to rope in the services of ex-servicemen for rescue operations.

Bommai said that there was need for extra precautionary measures as if the adjoining areas of western ghat region receives heavy to extreme rainfall then there is all possibility of landslides.

"For the last two years, coffee plantation districts - Kodagu and Chikkamagluru have witnesses landslides, therefore we have requested two more additional teams of NDRF to handle these kind of eventualities," he added.

Source: IANS