Gandhinagar: To meet the likely situation arising out of cyclone and to review the preparedness of the state government to face it, Gujarat Chief Minister Mr. Vijaybhai Rupani held a high-level meeting in Gandhinagar late this evening.

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Nitinbhai Patel and Revenue Minister Mr. Kaushik Patel and Chief Secretary and other senior officials and they had also apprised to Mr. Rupani about the preparedness of their respective departments.

To ensure minimum loss of lives and properties due to cyclone, several important directive decisions were taken in the meeting. In the meeting it was also decided to postpone three-day long, state-wide ‘Shala Praveshotsav’ to be held between June 13 and 15.

These likely to be affected districts are – Porbandar, Gir-Somnath, Botad, Bhavnagar, Dwarka, Jamnagar, Morbi, Junagadh, Amreli, Rajkot, and Kutch. The schools – colleges in these districts will also remain close on June 12 and 13.

Beside these, tomorrow’s meeting of State Cabinet to be held in Gandhinagar has also been postponed as the ministers and district in-charge secretaries could go to their respective districts to guide and assist the district administration.

Meanwhile, senior IAS officer Mr. Sandeep Kumar has been entrusted with a responsibility to restore the electricity on priority basis in Saurashtra – Kutch regions, if the PGVCL power supply gets affected due to the cyclone. Similarly, the Urban Development Department has also been instructed to shift the labourers, who are working at public or private works in these 11 districts, to safer places, and to dismantle the giant hoardings to prevent loss of lives and properties.

Meanwhile, Mr. Rupani has also urged the citizens to be united to face this natural calamity to ensure minimum loss of lives and properties, particularly of those 300,000 people who are living in make-shift houses in 31 tehsils of these 11 districts. The administration of these districts have also asked to ensure shifting of these people to safer places by tomorrow, afternoon.
The cyclone is likely to hit the coastal areas of Veraval and Diu at a wind speed of 120 to 130 km per hour, accompanied by rains, on the early morning of June 13. The state government has made all the arrangement to face this impending cyclone and your cooperation is very essential, he further urged.

The Chief Minister also urged religious, social, various chambers of commerce and other NGOs to join in these mammoth efforts of shifting the people to safer places, provide food, medicines and other facilities to them.

– Information