Excelsior Correspondent
Leh, June 26: Divisional Commissioner/ Secretary, Disaster Management, Ladakh, Saugat Biswas chaired a meeting to assess preparedness regarding disaster management in the Union Territory today.
Inspector General of Police Ladakh Satish Khandare, Chairman DDMA/District Magistrate Leh Sachin Kumar Vaishya, Chairman DDMA/District Magistrate Kargil Baseer-ul Haq Chaudhary, Station Commander, Leh Sub-Area Brig. Arun C, Station Commander 8 Mountain Div Brig. N.S. Sohail, Chief Engineer (P) HIMANK Col Amit Mahna, Chief Engineer VIJAYAK, officers from Medical, Police, Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation & Flood Control I&FC, Mechanical Division, Public Works Department, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Fire & Emergency, BSNL and other telecom companies were also present during the meeting. Officers from Kargil attended the meeting through video conference.
Biswas sought the position of preparedness from all the departments of both the districts and stressed on the fact of building infrastructure of each department/entity of Ladakh to empower themselves fully for meeting the various disasters that may strike Ladakh.
He gave directions to various departments to ensure availability of all equipments and machines in Ladakh within a time frame. All the departments were strictly instructed to ensure proper placement of machinery and equipments away from places vulnerable of getting washed away/ affected by flash-floods. Biswas further gave directions for proper maintenance of all the equipments for application at any given point of time. Direction was also given for proper planning to ensure de-silting of cannals and nallahs for free flow of water before any emergency.
IGP Ladakh S Khandare suggested decentralized deployment of stocks of SDRF equipments in places nearby police stations, to ensure proper stocking of the machines and equipments. Stress was also given for enhancement of manpower and their training by NDRF for proper hands-on expertise.
At the outset, Div Com Biswas instructed both the DMs for a decentralized plan for placement of equipments and earmarking of accessible locations for their placement. He then requested the Army/ VIJAYAK/HIMANK to share disaster mapping in road clearance. The Mechanical Division was instructed to provide list of required machinery keeping the variant nature of disaster in the form of flash-flood and mud flood, full of mud, sand & stone debris.
The Medical Departments of both the districts were given the instruction to prepare list of buildings that can be converted into temporary hospitals in the time of a disaster. Relocation plan of equipment and manpower upto PHC level must also be intimidated, he added. The Medical departments projected their demands for helipads, 4-wheeler vehicle for ambulance, among others.
A power-point presentation titled, ‘Past experience- future preparedness’ was also presented which gave a re-look at the flash-floods/ Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF)/ Landslide Lake Outburst Flood (LLOF) in Ladakh, their impact, losses, failures for future preparedness.
It also highlighted about various workshops and awareness camps conducted by SDRF/Civil Defense/Home Guard in the affected areas to aware people about dos and donts during an emergency.
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