The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Baseer Ahmad Khan on Saturday directed all Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of the Valley to establish 24×7 flood control room immediately in their respective districts.
The Div Com asked the DCs to place officers of Irrigationand Flood Control, Disaster Management, PHE, PDD, Revenue, Health, Food andPolice in the control room to provide real time information to theadministration and people.
The Divisional Commissioner, according to an officialspokesman, issued these directions while reviewing the “Flood Mitigation Plan”of the Kashmir division.
He said that all DCs briefed the Div Com about the floodscenario risks, mitigation, management, plans in place, resources available andfuture plans.
The Divisional Commissioner asked the DCs to collect an information of resources,including men, low lying areas, satellite phones, availability of geo qualityof sand bags, JCBs, ambulances, tents, de-watering pumps, evacuation plan,storage of essential commodities, list of nodal officers, water tankers, watersupply schemes, NGOs working for disaster management, database of volunteersmachinery and boats available from every department in their respectivedistricts with location of control room and number of village level committeesin their respective 24×7 flood control rooms and send the complete informationto the Div Com office within three days for necessary action.
All DCs were also asked to conduct mock drills of flooddisaster in every tehsils and low lying areas besides identify more volunteersfor disaster management training in their respective districts. The field staffneeds to be proactive in identifying the other vulnerable areas for naturaldisasters and appropriate measures be taken to avoid any damage at the time ofdisaster, he said.
The Director Disaster Management were stressed to make the divisional level emergency control room at Humhama and divisional level control room at Hari Niwas functional in all respects with all mandatory infrastructures within the shortest possible time.
For establishment of another divisional level emergency control room at Bakura Ganderbal, it was decided that Director Disaster Management shall inspect the site and furnish the report to the Divisional Commissioner within three days of time.
Chief Engineers of Irrigation and Flood Control departmentwere directed to conduct zoning of river Jhelum and other streams and conductsafety audit of river embankments of Jhelum and other streams especially atvulnerable spots and plug it at an earliest besides also conduct physicalsurvey of the encroachments in nallahs and rivers and ensure their immediate removaland store geo bags in advance.
It was decided to give wide publicity to the flood dutycharts already framed by the Chief Engineer, Kashmir Irrigation and FloodControl department and ensure its field implementation with regular meetings ofall concerned Officers.
The PHE, PDD, SMC were asked to mobilize their men andmachinery besides Health department will issue roasters of doctors, paramedicalstaff with medicines and ambulances. Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs(FCS&CA) will stock essential commodities quota besides JKSRTC kept readytheir vehicles for transportation well in advance in case of any floodeventuality.
For real time weather update, Meteorological (MET)department was asked to get feed from Doppler weather system immediately.
The Divisional Commissioner asked all officers to maintainclose coordination between various departments to deal with any flood calamityeffectively at the time of emergency so that fool proof mechanism will be madeand better services delivery to the people could be ensured.
The Additional Commissioner Kashmir, Chief Engineers ofIrrigation & Flood Control, PHE & PDD, Directors of Health &Disaster Management, DIGs of CRPF & BSF, Additional Commissioner SMC, JointDirector Fire & Emergency Services, Deputy Directors of MET, FCS&CA& Tourism, Dy. Commandant SDRF, Secretary Red Cross and other concernedofficers were present in the meeting, whereas all Deputy Commissioners of theValley participated through video conferencing.