BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government on Monday geared up for a ‘low to medium’ flood looming on six districts due to depression induced heavy rain in upper catchment areas of Mahanadi and Baitarani rivers . Chief minister Naveen Patnaik took stock of the situation and asked the officials to remain alert for any emergency situation.“We should remain in a state of full preparedness to tackle any emergency situation and provide immediate relief to the affected people. The fire department and ODRAF team must continue their support in rescue and relief operation,” Naveen said after the review meeting.High alert issued in six districts of the lower catchment areas of Mahanadi including Khurda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Puri and Jajpur. The flood situation is likely to be serious after sluice gates of Hirakud Dam will be opened on Tuesday.“Low to medium scale flood occurs when the water flows in the river beds without much overflow. It also does not cause much damage and inundate small areas,” said State Relief Commissioner (SRC), Bishnupada Sethi.Official sources said, 7.3 lakh cusec water discharged in Mundali barrage by 6 pm on Monday and around 8 lakh cusec will be discharged by Tuesday. With the IMD forecasting heavy rain in upper catchment areas in the next 24 hours the water levels in Mahanadi and Baitarani may rise.However, water resources department secretary P K Jena said “There is nothing to get panic over the release of water from Hirakud Dam and it will has little chance to add to the flood situation in Mahanadi. The water from Hirakud will take 36 hours to reach at Mundali. By the time the Hirakud water reach Cutatck, the existing water may be released to the sea.”SRC report said, twelve persons were killed in different incidents on Monday including five in Kalahandi, two in Sambalpur and one each in Jajapur, Baragarh, Kandhamal, Koraput and Subarnpur in the last three days.As many as 1, 22, 821 persons have been affected in Kalahandi district followed by around 1, 50, 000 in Sambalpur, 11, 241 in Boudh and 1, 28, 69 persons in Puri district in the flash flood in the last three days. Besides, six persons were killed in the rain related incidents in the state between July 20 and July 23, officials said.Twelve Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) teams have been deployed in various places of the state while five National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been pre-positioned in five districts including Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Puri and Jagatsinghpur.More than 10,000 people have been provided free cooked food in affected districts.

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