Zero Casualties and Quick Restoration Top Priorities: Collector Namit Mehta

Udaipur, A meeting of the District Disaster Management Authority was held on Tuesday in the Collectorate’s Mini Auditorium under the chairmanship of District Collector Namit Mehta. The meeting focused on preparations to deal with potential floods and excessive rainfall during the upcoming monsoon season. The Collector emphasized the need for ensuring zero casualties due to rain-related incidents and called for coordinated efforts to promptly restore essential services such as electricity and water supply.

The meeting began with ADM (Administration) and Member Secretary of the Disaster Management Authority, Deependra Singh Rathore, seeking updates on monsoon preparedness from officials of departments including Water Resources, UDA, Municipal Corporation, Medical and Health, PHED, AVVNL, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, and Civil Defence. Discussions were held on the necessary arrangements.

Collector Mehta directed UDA and the Municipal Corporation to ensure 100% cleaning of all city drainage channels. He also instructed that emergency resources like additional mud pumps, JCBs, and the availability of rapid response teams be arranged. Emphasizing the recurring issue of trees and electric poles falling during monsoon in Udaipur, he instructed departments to take immediate measures for rapid restoration. He further asked for temporary drains and barricading to be prepared in waterlogging-prone areas.

The Water Resources Department was asked to coordinate with all departments for flood control planning, ensure timely communication in case of dam or pond leakages, and initiate immediate restoration. The Medical Department was instructed to ensure the availability of life-saving medicines and mobile medical teams, while the Animal Husbandry Department was directed to prepare veterinary teams with medicines.

PWD was instructed to repair roads as required and temporarily restore damaged roads and culverts to maintain connectivity during rains.

Charge Sheets for Not Receiving Control Room Calls
ADM Rathore informed that a district-level control room has been established (Phone: 0294-2414620, Toll-free: 1077), where complaints and information from across the district are received and forwarded to concerned departments. However, several departmental officials either do not receive these calls or respond irresponsibly. Expressing displeasure, Collector Mehta instructed that calls from the control room must be taken seriously and directed ADM to issue charge sheets to officials who fail to comply. He also directed all departments to activate their respective control rooms for the monsoon season and ensure quality communication of information.

Barricading at All Danger Points
The Collector instructed UDA and the Municipal Corporation to identify all danger points across city drains through a campaign. He emphasized barricading of spots where past incidents have occurred or are likely to occur, and installing warning boards near rivers, drains, and ponds across the district.

Divers to Be Deployed at Lakes
Keeping in view the risk of accidents at lakes during monsoon, the Collector instructed the Civil Defence to deploy one or two divers at each lake and to finalize specific locations for their availability. He also ordered the identification of picnic spots near rivers and drains such as Nandeshwar Channel and Sisarma and directed necessary safety arrangements there.

Dilapidated Buildings to Be Vacated
Municipal bodies have been directed to identify and vacate dilapidated buildings across the city and district before the monsoon, ensuring no lives are endangered due to structural collapses.

Sensitive Transformers to Be Barricaded
AVVNL was asked to give special attention to electricity supply during the rains and deploy teams with necessary resources for quick restoration. Sensitive transformers at the district headquarters and large towns are to be surveyed and permanently or temporarily barricaded to prevent animal casualties.

Officials present at the meeting included Municipal Commissioner Ram Prakash, Girwa SDM Sonika Kumari, UDA Secretary Hemendra Nagar, Superintending Engineers Manoj Jain (Water Resources), Rajeev Agrawal (PWD), Ravindra Chaudhary (PHED), and K.R. Meena (AVVNL), among others.