With monsoon expected to hit the Indian coast in a few days, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has opened 47 help centres to assist the public who would be affected by the rain. Several parts of Pune has already received excess pre-monsoon shower accompanied by thunderstorms.
Normally, the monsoon arrives over Maharashtra seven days after it hit the Kerala coast and in Pune a day or two later.
The help centres are spread out in 15 ward office areas of the city. “The assistant municipal commissioner in charge of the ward office has been designated as nodal officer for help centres in the respective ward offices they are in charge of,” said Ravindra Binawade, additional municipal commissioner.
Shivajinagar-Ghole Road ward office has the maximum help centres of nine as the area under the jurisdiction is the most affected during the monsoon when there is a flood-like situation in Mutha River.
Municipal Commissioner Vikram Kumar said that there would be a disaster management cell at each ward office. “The in charge of ward office has to set up a communication system at the disaster management cell and appoint civic staff on duty. This cell will be operational till December 1 and will function round the clock,” he said.
The municipal commissioner said that the civic departments have carried out cleaning of sewage lines, stormwater drainage and culverts. However, if there arises any manmade or natural disaster then there should be a team for handling emergency situation such as building collapse and flooding in localities due to overflowing of drains, and for shifting of citizens to safer location. The civic team constituted for the purpose in each ward office should be given disaster management training, he added.
A few days ago, the PMC appealed to the public to inform the Disaster Management Cell’s main office about the incomplete work of cleaning drains and nallahs in their area by sending photos and GPS of the location.
Over the past few years, the PMC has drawn flak over its failure to handle monsoon-related situations such as water logging on roads, flooding in low line areas, and falling of trees on roads and houses. It was alleged that the civic administration had failed to check encroachments along water bodies and clean the stormwater drain and nallahs which witness flooding during monsoon.
