For effective flood mitigation plan, the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Baseer Ahmad Khan today directed all Deputy Commissioners of the valley to establish 24×7 flood control room immediately in their respective districts where officers of Irrigation and Flood Control, Disaster Management, PHE, PDD, Revenue, Health, Food and Police should be deployed to provide real-time information to the District Administration and people.The Divisional Commissioner made these directions while reviewing the Flood Mitigation Plan of the Kashmir Division.All Deputy Commissioners (DC) briefed in detail about the flood scenario risks, mitigation, management, plans in place, resources available and future plans.The Divisional Commissioner asked the DCs to collect an information of resources, including men, low lying areas, Satellite Phones, availability of Geo quality of sandbags, JCBs, Ambulances, tents, De-watering pumps, evacuation plan, storage of essential commodities, list of Nodal Officers, water tankers, water supply schemes, NGOs working for disaster management, database of volunteers machinery and boats available from every department in their respective districts with location of control room and number of village level committees in their respective 24×7 flood control rooms and send the complete information to Divisional Commissioner office within three days for necessary action.All Deputy Commissioners were also asked to conduct mock drills of flood disaster in every Tehsils and low lying areas besides identifying more volunteers for disaster management training in their respective districts. The field staff needs to be proactive in identifying the other vulnerable areas for natural disasters and appropriate measures be taken to avoid any damage at the time of the disaster, he said.Director Disaster Management was stressed to make the divisional level emergency control room at Humhama and Divisional Level Control Room at Hari Niwas functional in all respects with all mandatory infrastructures within the shortest possible time.
For the establishment of another divisional level emergency control room at Bakura Ganderbal, it was decided that Director Disaster Management shall inspect the site and furnish the report to the Divisional Commissioner within three days of time.Chief Engineer, Kashmir Irrigation and Flood Control Department were directed to conduct zoning of river Jhelum and other streams and immediate conduct safety audit of river embankments of Jhelum and other streams especially at vulnerable spots and plug it at an earliest besides also conduct physical survey of the encroachments in Nallahs and rivers and ensure their immediate removal and store geo bags in advance.It was decided to give wide publicity to the Flood Duty Charts already framed by the Chief Engineer, Kashmir Irrigation and Flood Control Department and ensure its field implementation with regular meetings of all concerned Officers.PHE, PDD, SMC were asked to mobilize their men and machinery besides Health department will issue roasters of Doctors, Paramedical Staff with Medicines and Ambulances. Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA) will stock essential commodities quota besides JKSRTC kept ready their vehicles for transportation well in advance in case of any flood eventuality.For real-time weather update, Meteorological (MET) Department was asked to get a feed from Doppler weather system immediately.The Divisional Commissioner called all officers for close coordination between various departments to deal with any flood calamity effectively at the time of emergency so that foolproof mechanism will be made and better services delivery to the people could be ensured.Additional Commissioner Kashmir, Chief Engineers of Irrigation & Flood Control, PHE & PDD, Directors of Health & Disaster Management, DIGs of CRPF & BSF, Additional Commissioner SMC, Joint Director Fire & Emergency Services, Deputy Directors of MET, FCS&CA & Tourism, Dy. Commandant SDRF, Secretary Red Cross and other concerned officers were present in the meeting, whereas all Deputy Commissioners of the valley participated in the meeting through video conferencing.