DC Srinagar finalises Snow Clearance Plan; gears up Admin for dealing with winter challenges

Srinagar: In order to gear up the District Administration and machinery to deal winter challenges particularly with regard to current weather advisory, a meeting of all District/Sectoral Officers was Friday held under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Srinagar, Dr. Bilal Mohi-Ud-Din Bhat at Meeting Hall of DC Office Complex, here.
The DC took a detailed review of overall winter preparedness in the district including, health care facilities, power and water supply position, availability of ration, fuel, LPG and other essentials, besides arrangements put in place for timely snow clearance across the district to ensure smooth movement of vehicles, ambulances etc.
At the outset, the DC stressed on taking preventive and precautionary measures well in advance so that routine functioning at all essential installations, besides trade, transport, essential supplies and other routine works are not affected.
He also stressed the Officers on readying men and machinery to ensure timely redressal of weather vagaries and subsequent interruptions of supply of water, electricity and road closure due to snowfall.
During the meeting, the DC directed for setting up of a special Joint Control Room in the district to redress the winter-related complaints of the general public on a fast track basis. He stressed the concerned to ensure a prompt response system is placed to ensure hassle-free supply of essential services to the people and instructed that response time should be minimized while facing any emergency like situations.
The DC also took first hand appraisal of the preparations made with regard to clearance of Snow.
The meeting was apprised that adequate number of hi-tech Snow clearance machines have been kept ready by the R&B, SMC and Mechanical Engineering Department in Srinagar out of which various machines have been deployed at important installations and vital sites across the district, while few machines are kept in standby mode to meet any exigency during heavy snowfall.
In addition, permanent and mobile dewatering stations are run by SMC in the district to tackle any water logging caused due to rains or snowfall. Besides, dewatering pumps of UEED are also operational to deal with any water logging.
The DC asked the SMC authorities to keep men and machinery ready to clear snow from inner lanes and by-lanes of the City.
Similarly, the DC directed the Chief Medical Officer to ensure availability of staff, medicine and sufficient stock of drugs, emergency medicine, ambulance services in all tertiary care hospitals in the City, besides making proper functioning of the central heating system in all hospitals during the winter season.
Reviewing the status of the power supply scenario in the district, the DC asked the Engineers of KPDCL to take all required measures in order to ensure that power supply is not affected during snowfall particularly at essential installations. He asked the Officers to keep men and machinery ready for early restoration of the power supply in case of disruption due to snowfall.
The DC stressed on time bond replacement of damaged transformers in all the areas of the district so that people do not face any inconvenience.
It was informed that proper backup has been kept for ensuring supply of water in the district and all PHE schemes are running properly and supplying water smoothly to all the areas.
The Assistant Director FCS&CA informed that sufficient stock of Ration is available to cater the demands, while Petrol and Diesel supply is also in buffer stock besides LPG stock for minimum 20 days in the district.
Besides, Additional District Development Commissioner, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, the meeting was attended by Superintendent Engineers of R&B, MED, PDD, SMC, Chief Planning Officers, Chief Medical Officer, Assistant Commissioner Revenue, SDM East, SDM West, All Tehsildars, and AD FCS&CA, besides other senior Officers fromTraffic Police and Civil Administration.