LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Planning and Development (P&D) and Chairman of Cabinet Committee on Floods, Malik Nadeem Kamran on Friday directed all the district administrations to take local government representatives on board to have their cooperation and assistance during pre-monsoon/flood arrangement.
Chairing the first cabinet committee’s meeting on pre-monsoon and anti-flood arrangements for the year 2018 at the Civil Secretariat on Friday, Kamran reviewed the arrangements made by different provincial departments to combat any possible threat of flood during pre-monsoon.
Speaking on the occasion, Senior Member of Board of Revenue (SMBR) Muhammad Aslam Kamboh directed all the district administrations to seek clearance of waterways of bridges and culverts from Pakistan Railways (PRs), National Highway Authority (NHA) and other concerned departments and to remove encroachments, especially on zamindari bunds.
He further directed all the district administrations not only to issue clearance certificates but also to personally inspect the flood fighting equipment.
While briefing the meeting, Director General (DG) of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Mudassar Waheed Malik said that the Punjab chapter of PDMA had issued instructions to all the concerned departments and district administrations to complete pre-flood arrangements.
Chief Meteorologist Muhammad Riaz briefed the meeting about the weather situation and said that there were no chances of any flood in pre-monsoon season, however, dust storms were expected in the coming days. He said that isolated thunderstorms and rains were expected in Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Lahore Divisions in the next week.
Secretaries of different provincial departments and high-rank officials of concerned departments attended the meeting at Civil Secretariat, while deputy commissioners and high-rank officials of the concerned departments also participated in the meeting from their respective districts through a video link.
