No leave during monsoon, Corpn tells ward engineers

 Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash gave the instruction during a monsoon preparedness meeting held in Ripon Building on Thursday.

The 15 IAS officials who have been appointed as monitoring officials participated in the meeting, during which they were appraised of monsoon preparedness measures taken by the civic body, said a press release from the civic body. Besides them, officials from Metrowater, CPCL, NHAI, Southern Railway and other departments also took part in the meeting. The release added that the engineers and other officials in 200 wards have been asked to report to duty without taking leave. “Zone-wise problems and action taken to sort out the issues were explained to the monitoring officers,” it said. Speaking to the reporters after the meeting, Commissioner Prakash said that the monitoring officers would oversee flood mitigation works in the city and propose measures to prevent flooding. “During 2015, there were over 1,200 flood vulnerable spots in the city. Now, due to several works, the number of vulnerable spots has come down to 150,” he added.

Meanwhile, the civic body has started to float tenders to desilt storm water drains before the onset of monsoon. The contractors have also been asked to take photographs of drains that have already been desilted and send to the head office along with geographical location.