DM’s stress on early vacation of rickety houses

LUCKNOW: In the wake of recent incidents of house collapse following incessant rainfall, district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma has sounded high alert and also held a meeting with officials of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Army, fire service and city police to ensure better co-ordination among them during emergencies.

He also convened a meeting with Nagar Nigam and other departments on early vacation of rickety houses.

He said if the coordination among departments was better, more would be saved during disasters.

To recall, on August 3, three people were killed and several others injured after 6 dilapidated houses collapsed following heavy rainfall. Another incident was reported on July 28 when a house in Kashmiri mohalla collapsed following rain.

Sharma said there a platform was needed where all the forces could share the information, resulting in quick response.

Sharma also took stock of the ongoing vacation of dilapidated houses. As per the Nagar Nigam records, 113 houses fall in the bracket of dilapidated structures. Of these, 41 houses are located in Nagar Nigam zone 1, 35 in zone 2, 4 in zone 3, 8 in zone 4 and 35 in zone 5.

He said the houses would be vacated within two days. He said the Nagar Nigam had been directed to issue notice immediately and to ensure early vacation of the houses. Besides, he also directed additional city magistrate and city police to provide vehicles to assist the house owners in vacating the houses and also to ensure that the household goods were safely transported either to their relative’s houses, rain baseras or community centres.

He said the traffic controller had been made a nodal officer to contact NDRF and SDRF during emergency . “Instructions have been given to Nagar Nigam and other departments to arrange PCB machines, tractors and small loaders in adequate number to assist the teams engaged in rescue operations,” he added. As of now, only 4 dilapidated houses, parts of which had fallen in the recent rain, were razed.