Hoshiarpur- A high level meeting was held in the District Administrative Complex under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Ashika Jain to deal with the possible flood situation. Officers of all the concerned departments of the district participated in the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to review the preparations in view of the possibility of flood and to make all the departments aware of their duties and responsibilities.
Deputy Commissioner Ashika Jain directed that the Revenue Department should identify the flood affected areas and mark the relief and rescue centers. The duty of Patwaris and Kanungos should be fixed in advance so that there is no delay in rescue and relief work in case of emergency.
The Deputy Commissioner directed the Municipal Corporation / Municipal Councils and Water Supply and Sanitation Department to complete the cleaning of all drains and sewers on a war footing. A list of waterlogged areas should be made and special arrangements should be made so that water can be drained without any hindrance. He directed the Health Department to deploy medical teams in potential flood affected areas. Apart from this, it was asked to ensure adequate availability of essential medicines, chlorine tablets and life saving equipment.
The Deputy Commissioner directed the Electricity Corporation to keep a special watch on transformers, wires and poles in flood-affected areas and shift them to safer places as required. He also asked to keep a rapid response team ready to restore supply immediately in case of emergency.
He directed the Police Department, Civil Defence, Nehru Yuva Kendra to be ready to assist in crowd control, traffic management and relief work. The District Red Cross Society was directed to ensure relief material with the help of voluntary organizations.
The drainage department was asked to regularly monitor the water level of rivers and dams. The SDM was asked to coordinate with the NDRF and SDRF. Apart from this, he was also asked to ensure the availability of necessary equipment and boats etc.
The Deputy Commissioner said that along with administrative preparations, public cooperation is also very important. Panchayats, Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and social organizations should together make people aware.
Aashika Jain directed all the officers to finalize the preparations at their respective departmental levels. She said that quick action in an emergency situation should be our first priority.
The Deputy Commissioner informed that a control room has been set up at the district level to deal with floods in the district, which works 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He said that through this control room, all information related to floods can be exchanged quickly and immediate relief can be provided to the needy people. He informed that the telephone number of this control room established at the district level is 01882-220412.
He informed that similarly, flood control unit has been established at the tehsil level, in which the telephone number of the control room of Tehsil Hoshiarpur is 01882-244175, the telephone number of the control room of Tehsil Garhshankar is 01884-282026, the telephone number of the control room of Tehsil Dasuha is 01883-506268, the telephone number of the control room of Tehsil Tanda is 01886-512952 and the telephone number of the control room of Tehsil Mukerian is 01883-244310.
He said that if any information related to flood is received in the district during the rainy season, they should immediately inform these control rooms. Apart from this, if any flood related information is required, the above numbers can also be contacted.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Nikas Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Amarbir Kaur Bhullar, SDM Dasuha Kanwaljit Singh, SDM Hoshiarpur Gursimranjit Kaur, DRO Larson Singla and other officers were also present on the occasion.