Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday, 14 June issued a stern warning to officials across departments, stating that strict action would be unavoidable if traffic disruptions in Hyderabad continued during heavy rainfall. The warning came at a high-level review meeting on monsoon preparedness, convened in the wake of severe traffic chaos that paralysed parts of the city on 9 June.

What Triggered the Warning

The 9 June rains exposed a critical lapse in coordination between municipal, police, and traffic personnel — despite advance warnings from the Meteorological Department. Areas including Cyberabad witnessed prolonged traffic jams, drawing the Chief Minister's sharp displeasure. Revanth Reddy noted that he had himself issued preparedness directives at a review meeting as recently as 1 June, making the subsequent failure all the more difficult to overlook.

Key Directives Issued

The Chief Minister directed that all personnel — from constables to the Police Commissioner — must be physically present on roads during rainfall. He instructed Chief Secretary Ramakrishna Rao and Director General of Police (DGP) CV Anand to analyse the causes behind the 9 June situation and initiate action against the officials responsible. The DGP was also directed to immediately fill vacancies in the traffic department. Revanth Reddy made clear that human error causing traffic mismanagement would not be tolerated under any circumstances, and added that he would personally take to the streets if the situation demanded it.

Multi-Department Mobilisation Ordered

The Chief Minister mandated that personnel from Municipal Administration, HYDRAA, Traffic, Water Board, and civil police departments remain deployed on the ground during every period of rainfall. He instructed officials to prepare data-driven action plans identifying waterlogging points, accident-prone zones, and congestion-vulnerable stretches across the city. Officials were directed to act proactively in line with Meteorological Department forecasts rather than responding reactively.

Power and Irrigation Directives

Beyond traffic, the Chief Minister expressed anger over power outages caused by trees falling during the rains. He ordered immediate restoration of electricity supply and directed that mobile transformers be deployed wherever required, with all Electricity Department personnel remaining field-deployed through the monsoon season. On the irrigation front, Revanth Reddy directed officials to strictly follow project operation manuals and ordered engineers to remain stationed at project sites. He instructed the Irrigation Secretary to take strict action against any engineer who leaves a project site without authorisation. Principal Secretary (Finance) Sandeep Kumar Sultania was directed to immediately sanction funds for the repair and maintenance of project gates.

Who Attended the Meeting

The review meeting was attended by Rajya Sabha member Vem Narender Reddy, Government Advisor Sudarshan Reddy, Chief Secretary Ramakrishna Rao, and DGP CV Anand, along with senior officials from the Irrigation, Municipal Administration, Health, Police, Agriculture, and Meteorological departments.

With the monsoon season now fully underway, the Chief Minister's directives signal a zero-tolerance posture — and the next spell of heavy rain will serve as the real test of whether Hyderabad's administrative machinery can match its warnings with action.