Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole Wednesday convened a meeting to review flood preparedness and mechanism put in place to tackle flood-like situation in Kashmir.
Themeeting was attended by Chief Engineer, Flood Control department (I&FC);General Manager, BSNL, Kashmir; business heads, Reliance JIO; Bharti Airtel,Vodafone and Idea, besides other officers.
The meeting held detaileddiscussion on the measures undertaken to combat any flood like situation andmechanism put in place for flood management.
The meeting was informedthat I&FC has taken various initiatives including installation of automaticWater Level Recorders (WLRs) at various locations on river Jhelum at Sangam,Pampore, Ram Munshi Bagh and Asham and at its major tributaries including Sind,Lidder, Doodganga, Vaishaw and Rambiar.
Besides, department wasfurther expanding network of automatic WLRs across the Valley to obtain instantdata.
The Divisional Commissionerdirected the officers to adhere to the guidelines of National DisasterManagement Authority (NDMA) to minimize vulnerability to floods and consequentloss of lives, livelihood systems, property and damage to infrastructure andpublic utilities.
Healso stressed telecom companies to follow SOPs laid down by NDMA and asked themthat bulk SMS services should be made available for dissemination of warningsto the people, preferably residing in low lying areas on real time basis, atthe time of exigency.
The authorities of the I&FC department were directed toupdate the list of all its available tools and plants and upload it on IDRMnetwork besides prepare a list of boats available with different departmentsalong with their locations.
He also directed theconcerned to update the disaster management plans and rectify the deficiencies,if any.
Pole exhorted the officers to complete all restoration workstaken in hand and all measures undertaken were brought to conclusion so thatsituation like 2014 were tackled and managed effectively with minimum losses.