Bandipora: The district administration Bandipora including all departments concerned were on its toes all through Saturday as snowfall battered the district as other parts of the Kashmir region where a harsh weather spell has been underway since Tuesday.
Men and machineries of snow-clearance and power departments were on the ground as part of a massive response mechanism activated across Bandipora in efforts to ease disruptions to essential services resulting from the snowfall.
Deputy Commissioner Bandipora Dr Owais Ahmed was himself out monitoring the response mechanism. He visited all areas of the district to inspect the response mechanism and to take firsthand assessment of requirements surrounding essential services and supplies thrown out of order as a result of the snowfall.
He was accompanied by ACR Bandipora Reyaz Ahmad Beigh, Tehsildar Bandipora Mubashir Saleem Nazki and other senior officers of the district.
The DDC visited several areas like Chuntimulla, Sumlar, Arin, Bapora, Check Arsala Khan of the Bandipora and inspected the snow clearance operations besides reviewing the power supply scenario, availability of drinking water and healthcare services available in the Public Health Centers.
He visited remote villages of Bandipora district and took stock of post snowfall situation in these areas.
Enroute, Dr Owais met people and interacted with them to get the feedback about the delivery of essential services to the people of these remote villages. On the occasion locals expressed satisfaction over the performance of the field functionaries in restoring essential services amid heavy snowfall last week.
They also informed the DC Bandipora about several issues faced by them and sought early resolution to their grievances. DC Bandipora passed on spot directions for resolutions of several problems.
DDC lauded the efforts of the field staff in clearing the roads quickly besides restoring water supply and electricity. He said that the restoration of electricity supply is being done on war footing basis with continuous patrol of the field staff in their respective areas to ensure identification and simultaneous restoration of faults.
Dr Owais said multiple teams have been constituted to supervise restoration of essential services. He said the teams tour their designated areas to personally monitor the snow clearance operations and restoration of essential services. He added that we have pressed three 4×4 vehicles into services for medical emergencies requiring shifting to hospitals from Bandipora to srinagar.
20 snow clearance machines have been deployed in the district to clear roads which include nine machines of Mechanical Division, Three machines of R&B department and four machines of Municipal Committees of Sumbal, Hajin and Bandipora. The machines are continuously clearing the roads as the snowfall continued till Wednesday Morning. The control rooms established at District and Sub-Divisional level are ensuring that every grievance with regard to snow clearance or any SOS from people is responded and redressed. All the grievances received through phone or social media are diverted to the control room for redressal of the grievances immediately.
The district administration rescued many critical patients by ferrying them from their respective villages to hospital. An 80-year-old patient who suffered a massive cardiac arrest on Tuesday evening was ferried to hospital in the personal escort vehicle (4X4) of Deputy Commissioner Bandipora as other vehicles were not able to move in snow. An expecting mother was ferried to DH Bandipora at mid night amid heavy snowfall and an emergency LSCS was conducted by a team of doctors who were already waiting for the patient to arrive. In another similar case, a pregnant lady was evacuated in JCB with the helo of Police from a far flung area in the wee hours of Wednesday morning and provided treatment at DH Bandipora. Responding to an SOS call for help a nomadic family was rescued and provided food, shelter and heating arrangements at Shadipor who were stuck due to snowfall.
Regular market checking is being conducted to ensure no legal metrology law is violated and no arbitrary price hike takes place in market. Out of 59 Water supply schemes 57 restored fully. Locals thanked DC Bandipora for reaching out to them during adverse weather conditions.
