The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) had an emergency meeting on Monday in which BMC Commissioner Dr Krishan Kumar took stock of the flood situation and reviewed the ongoing work by the 12 sector officers.
In the meeting, the Commissioner stressed that the 12 sector officers would take local meetings with the grassroots level staff and file reports to face the urban flooding situation and have a complete strategy to ward off the situation in future.
Saying that the responsibility now will be fixed on the sector officers, he asked the officers concerned to get on the job and work for the institutional framework building process so that in future, in case of water-logging or urban flooding or any such natural calamity, a proper procedure to face such situation would be in place.
While asking for deployment of 20 pump sets for emergency requirement, the Commissioner also called for identification of all choking points and drainage issues for immediate redressal and stressed immediate action by the enforcement branch of the BMC and the BDA to redress the drainage problem.
The Control Room received 36 calls till the filing of report on Monday. Bhubaneswar has been divided into 12 sectors and one each OAS officer is in charge. The officers from BMC and BDA are working in teams to address the emerging situation. Coordination meetings with all line departments have been held regularly held. This includes Public Works Department, Public Health Engineering Organisation, Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Central Electricity Supply Utility, etc. The Engineering Division of the BMC has made 13 squads. They are available for taking up any temporary measure to ensure discharge of water. All sanitation agencies and workers are in field in shifts and they are ensuring constant cleanliness and garbage removal from drains to remove chocking.