Sambalpur: The administration has taken up various measures to meet the probable flood situation in the district and directed the concerned departments to be ready to meet the natural calamity on a war footing manner.

At a flood preparatory meeting presided over by Sambalpur collector Samarth Verma on Wednesday, it was decided to open 34 flood relief camps in the town. "Each relief camp will be supervised by an entrusted officer with the help of staff members, NGOs, social organisations, Asha and anganwadi workers," district emergency officer Sanjeev Pujari told The Telegraph.

The town area has been divided into 34 zones, where the evacuated people will be given shelter. To provide food to the affected people, three cooking centres have been located on the Samaleswari temple premises, near the IB river and the Marwadi Panchayat Dharmasala at Khetrajpur.

Verma has directed officials of the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation, irrigation and the public works department to make immediate arrangements to clean the important main drains such as the Dhobijor and Tangna nullahs passing through the main town with a view to releasing rainwater in a quickest possible time.

He has also directed the food and civil supplies department to keep adequate stock of dry food to ensure immediate supply to the affected people. The department is also ordered to keep rice, dal and other articles, including gas, to provide the cooking centres.

A round-the-clock control room has been opened in the collectorate and the corporation officials have been instructed to keep its manpower ready to help in rescue operation and providing food packets.

The social organisations, NGOs and the youth organisations, which took part in the meeting, offered to render services in cooking and distributing food in the camps.

Heavy rain, which lashed the district on July 16, inundated several low-lying areas of the town and entered houses because of a properly maintained drainage problem.

"Because it was the first heavy rain of the season, there was problem in release of water because of the chocking of narrow bridges. We have deployed adequate labourers to clear the drains," Pujari said.

In another development, Verma and Sambalpur MLA Raseswari Panigrahi visited the affected areas. They also visited some of the milkmen family living on the Mahanadi riverbed and persuaded them to shift their sheds to the other side of the embankment for safety.