By Anup Biswas

Haflong : Under the chairmanship of Pual Baruah, Deputy Commissioner cum Chairman, District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Dima Hasao a meeting on flood preparedness was held with the nodal officers of all the line departments SP, Jayant Singh, ADC, Asst Commissioners from DC office and SDO (C) Maibang, DPO, DDMA in presence of officials appointed from Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), Project Officers, Ankur Bikash Dev and Maharana Choudhury on Wednesday.

Briefing about the new government guidelines in wake of COVID-19 pandemic, various new instructions to be followed while setting up of relief camps were appraised by the ASDMA officials. This included a space of 7 sq m i.e 75 sq ft per person to ensure social distancing, 7 litres of drinking water per person per day, bio-toilets separate for male and female, regular sanitization, child friendly space ensuring children’s hygiene, registration counters with medical officials, follow COVID-19 protocol, covid appropriate behavior and other issues.

Various discussions were made pertaining to difficulties faced during the heavy rain in this district that mostly indicated of landslides and slight flash flood. Unlike the other districts, flood is not much prevalent in Dima Hasao and the maximum devastations caused to the people in this district in both urban and rural, including farming land is due to landslide. Livestock and other issues faced by the farmers were appraised by the official from veterinary and animal husbandry department.

Concentrating on the district centric issues faced during such season, Deputy Commissioner instructed all the line departments to submit the flood preparedness and quick response plan to the DDMA at the earliest.