Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay on Thursday inspected the State Emergency Operations Centre at Ezhilagam in Chennai and reviewed the precautionary measures taken in districts other than Chennai for the Northeast monsoon.

During the review, he held a meeting with officials of the Revenue and Disaster Management and Collectors of districts for which the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued warnings of very heavy rainfall and instructed them to strengthen inter-departmental coordination and respond promptly to emergencies that may arise during the Northeast monsoon.

He instructed the Collectors to take all necessary precautionary measures and ensure adequate safety arrangements to prevent loss of life due to heavy rain and flooding, according to an official release.

The IMD has issued warnings of very heavy rainfall for the Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Dindigul, Theni, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Tenkasi, Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Sivaganga, Pudukkottai, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts for Thursday.

The Chief Minister also inspected the Integrated Multi-Hazard Monitoring Dashboard set up at the State Emergency Operations Centre. The system enables real-time monitoring of critical information required for disaster preparedness and rescue operations including actual rainfall and rainfall forecasts issued by the IMD, dashboard details on complaint calls received from the public, water-level details of major reservoirs, weather radar images to track cloud movement and formation and facilitate timely warnings.

Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management K.A. Sengottaiyan, Chief Secretary M. Sai Kumar, Commissioner of Revenue Administration P. Chandra Mohan, Revenue and Disaster Management Secretary K.S. Palanisamy, Commissioner for Disaster Management A. Sivagnanam were among those present.