A monsoon preparedness meeting under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary (CS) and Chairman SEC, NSDMA, Dr. J Alam, IAS was held at the Chief Secretary's Conference Hall, Nagaland Civil Secretariat, Kohima on 21th May 2025.The meeting with DCs and Districts heads of Departments was held to assess the availability of essential commodities, roads and alternative routes, healthcare services and mass social work to combat the unforeseen disaster that may occur in the upcoming monsoon in the district.
During the meeting, Alam mentioned that in the anticipated monsoon seasons some districts will be witnessing deficient rainfall and excess rainfall which may be challenging, and urged all Deputy Commissioners and the line departments to stay vigilant and be prepared to deal with any emergencies throughout.
Alam also raised concern over proper maintenance of road between Kohima and Dimapur stressing mainly on old KMC dumping site which causes major challenges every year due to landslides and blockage of road by overloaded trucks. He therefore urged the administration, Police and line departments to monitor traffic regulations and also to identify alternative routes to ensure smooth traffic flow at all times.
He further instructed the PWD Department to arrange and place the machinery strategically in disaster or landslide prone areas to ensure proactive measures, and also stressed on the need to keep sufficient stock of essential commodities available, specifically identifying vulnerable areas for the monsoon season.
The CS also instructed the Health & Family Welfare department to specifically look into vulnerable areas and take appropriate precautionary measures for any monsoon related eventualities and outbreaks.
He called on the DCs to judiciously utilise all their resources at their disposal whenever there is any emergency and also to ensure that all the roads are open always and even during landslides, blockades etc, taking minimum possible time to restore and repair the damaged roads. He also directed the DCs to convene regular preparatory meetings adding that specific directions and guidelines are to be given to the departments and organisations.
Alam further requested all departments to give instructions to their respective heads of offices in all the districts to provide necessary support and coordination to the district magistrates and the DCs in the districts for any monsoon related issues.
In his closing remarks, the CS stated that the points raised by the DCs have been noted and it will all be addressed, particularly the availability of essential commodities, medicines and wherever possible emergency machinery equipment etc should be made available by the department concerned.
Deputy Commissioners and Chairman District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and District Head of Departments joined the meeting through Video Conference and updated their status of monsoon preparedness and the challenges faced by the respective districts.
(Esuihangle, IA)
