The State Government has commenced necessary preparations for undertaking safety measures and relief work in anticipation of heavy rains followed by possible floods in certain parts of Chhattisgarh during the coming monsoon season.
A circular had been issued to all the district-level disaster management units to prepare an Action Plan through setting up of a control room, provision of sufficient stock of food items in the inaccessible areas besides storage of life saving drugs in various regions of the State.
The Circular issued by Revenue and Disaster Management Department from the Mantralaya here on Friday stated that all districts need to set up the control room while ensuring that they provide their respective telephone numbers to the office of the Relief Commissioner for necessary action.
The control rooms would be functioning round-the-clock. It was also directed in the Circular to make sufficient use of the media to inform people regarding the existence of control rooms and the services offered by them to the general public.
The circular also mentioned a directive to all the district collectors for identifying such regions where floods occur every year during the monsoon season and make special arrangements for monitoring of such regions.
A directive was also issued to make suitable arrangements for transporting people to safer places with the provision of camps for their stay in case of floods.
Those districts which have motor boats had been asked to ensure that the same could be despatched with the trained jawans if the demand arises from any quarter in their respective regions.
In case of floods, if the assistance of the Army is required then the information be conveyed to the Principal Secretary, Revenue, through the landline or his mobile number personally by the officials.
The officials had also been asked to constantly monitor the water level of the rivers flowing through various districts and alert the State-level control room in advance in the possibility of water level reaching the danger mark besides informing the authorities in the districts in the low lying regions of the State.
The circular also mentioned about exercising due caution before releasing water in the ponds with consistent efforts deployed towards exiting water from such ponds to prevent a flood-like situation.
It was also directed that the low lying and bordering districts must be informed 12 hours in advance in case of rise in water levels of various dams in the State.
The information on any damage suffered on account of floods be conveyed regularly to the Office of the Relief Commissioner on phone number 0771-2510593 or faxed to 0771-2510823.
This apart, the circular also asked appointment of flood control officers at the District and Tehsil level with the availability of their landline and mobile numbers with the Revenue Department.
The officials had also been asked to provide district and Tehsil wise rainfall details from June 1 to the Relief Commissioner through fax and make entry of the data to the website cg.nic.in/varsha by 11 am every day.
It was also informed in the circular that the officials can take assistance of Director, Home Guards and ‘Nagrik Suraksha’ headquarters in Raipur in case of relief supplies required in the event of floods.