Due to the heavy and continuous rains as an effect of Cyclone Gulab, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has declared a holiday for all government offices, including schools, colleges and educational institutions in the state for Tuesday, September 28. The decision came on Monday evening as the CM reviewed disaster preparedness in wake of the expected heavy rains in the state with Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar.
According to the Indian Met Department, the weather system, which had already weakened to a severe depression, decreased further to a depression at 5:30 pm and lay centred over north Telangana and adjoining border areas of Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. “It is likely to move west-northwestwards and weaken into a Well Marked Low Pressure Area during the next 24 hours. The system is likely to emerge into the northeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Gujarat coast around September 30th evening and there is a likelihood for the system to further intensify over the northeast Arabian Sea during the subsequent 24 hours,” IMD bulletin at 8 pm said.
The Chief Secretary, however, clarified that emergency departments like Revenue, Police, Fire Services, Municipal, Panchayati Raj, Irrigation, Roads and Buildings will remain on emergency duty to ensure no lives are lost due to heavy rains. Due to the expected heavy rains, multiple exams that were set to be held on Monday and Tuesday were cancelled by respective universities and authorities. These included Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and Osmania University. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday issued a red warning (extremely heavy rainfall) for districts like Nirmal, Nizamabad, Jagityal, Rajanna-Sircilla, Karimnagar, Peddapalli, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Khammam, Mahabubabad, Warangal (Rural), Warangal (Urban), Janagaon, Siddipet and Kamareddy.
Adilabad, Asifabad, Mancherial, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Mulugu, Suryapet, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Rangareddy, Hyderabad, Medchal Malkajgiri, Vikarabad, Sangareddy and Medak districts are expected to receive heavy to very rainfall, the IMD added.
Further authorities have warned the state of flash floods due to the expected heavy rains. Bhadradri Kothagudem, Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Suryapet and Nalgonda districts are under alert. Similar alerts have been issued in neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.