Assam minister for welfare of plain tribes and backward classes and tourism, Chandan Brahma, on Monday held a meeting with district administration and district heads of the departments to review the flood preparation and response mechanism in place in Chirang district.
During the meeting, he took stock of the current status of vulnerable embankments, roads, bridges, buildings etc and measures taken by the respective departments.
The meeting chaired by Gautam Talukdar, deputy commissioner, Chirang was attended by Bijni MLA Kamalsing Narzary, other officials of district administration and district departmental heads from the Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) department, Public Works Department (PWD), Food, Civil Supply and Consumer Affairs (FCS&CA), District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Agriculture, Public Health Engineering (PHE), Veterinary and Animal Husbandry (V&AH), Education,Transpot, Water Resources, Soil Conservation, as well as from the Land Revenue department.
Speaking on the occasion, Brahma stated that the district shall have to be fully prepared to deal with any eventuality that may arise due to a flood like situation. He called upon the officials of health department and FCS&CA to keep sufficient stock of medicines, availability of doctors, para medical staff and food and other essential commodities respectively.
He gave instruction to the joint director, Health Services for procurement of disinfectants to be used in the event of floods for containment of water borne diseases.
As such, he asked Water Resources to devise flood management and mitigation plans by arranging funding source immediately.
He further directed PWD, Water Resources and Soil Conservation to take up all urgent works immediately to ensure that works are completed in time.
Instructions were also given on resuming of pending and approved schemes at all vulnerable spots and keep men and machinery in ready mode to deal with flood like situation emerging anywhere in the district.
The minister also asked the PHE officials to take schemes with the aim of providing drinking water for the people of Indo-Bhutan border areas.
He further ordered them to continue their sanitization works especially at public places like market areas, offices and bus stand.
While reviewing the pace of execution of MGNREGA and PMAY under DRDA, Chirang, Brahma directed the project director for resuming all pending works by engaging job card holders to generate mandays days taking all necessary precautionary measures like maintaining social distancing, wearing masks, avoiding mass gathering and applying personal hygiene during the lockdown for COVID-19 pandemic.
He also asked V&AH to keep ready of cattle fodder and medicines.