With the weather department announcing the onset of monsoon in Uttarakhand on June 19, Dehradun District Magistrate SA Murugeshan met sub-divisional magistrates and district level officers at Vikas Bhawan on Saturday and gave them necessary instructions to make fool-proof arrangements to spare the people the woes monsoon spawns for them.
DM directed the district officers to ensure that they respond swiftly after receiving information related to any rain-triggered crisis across the district. While asking all to be alert, he said that conducting rescue and relief operation in case of disaster is a collective work. “Thus what is needed is coordination among the employees and officers of all the related departments. We expect a perfect team spirit to undertake such works so that the people face the least difficulty while negotiating the aftermath of heavy rains,” DM said.
The district officers were directed to complete all the preparations for taking on any calamity that may befall any part of the district during the monsoon season. He said that no employee would be allowed to leave the areas assigned to them without seeking prior permission from him. Action would be taken against the officials found absent at their assigned areas, he warned. DM directed all the department officials to improve resources by purchasing the required items from the market after seeking permission apart from fixing the faults lying in the equipments used during disaster.
Murugeshan also directed the public works department and National Highway officers to identity landslide-sensitive motor roads while asking them to deploy JCB operators at such vulnerable places. The officers were directed to conduct physical inspection of those places from where maximum cases of landslides are reported within their jurisdictional limits.
The district officers were also directed to identity the places along the banks of rivers where some families are living. He stressed on such families being shifted to camps coming up at the Government schools, panchayat offices, wedding points and the like once flood seems imminent during the monsoon season.
He also said that the potholes nallahs and buildings being constructed on the banks of rivers should be identified so that appropriate actions can be taken beforehand.
Sub-divisional magistrates were directed to set up disaster control rooms within their jurisdictional limits and in case of any disaster like situation, the district control room based at the district headquarters should be informed immediately.
Photography of works being performed to mitigate the disaster should be conducted at the sub- divisional levels and the SDMs should conduct verification of such places so that disaster affected persons can be compensated adequately as per the Government norms.