6 locations identified for interstate disaster preparedness drill: Khatri

Six places in the city have been identified for the interstate earthquake mock drill to take place on June 28. It includes Mini Secretariat, Tau Devi Lal Stadium, Ambience Mall, Poly Clinic Sector 31, Nirvana Country and an industrial unit that will replicate gas leakage, said Amit Khatri, deputy commissioner, during a press conference on Wednesday.

The mock drill will be simultaneously conducted in Gurugram, Faridabad, Jhajjar and Sonepat districts of Haryana, Delhi and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh, such as Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, and Meerut.

During the conference, Khatri also shared the ongoing activities to prepare for the monsoon. He said, “Decongestion of culverts and desilting of drains is being carried out by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and Gurgaon Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) to prevent water-logging on arterial roads of the city.”

On being asked if the Millennium City was prepared to prevent water-logging during the monsoon, he said, “The city will be prepared in all aspects when leg I (Nathupur drain), leg II (Chakarpur drain) and leg III (Badshahpur drain) will be functional to their total capacities. The safe release of rainwater is not our sole intention, and we are also looking at maximum rainwater harvesting.”

He added that a major plantation drive will take place in the city on July 14 under the guidance of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. “We are identifying areas in the city where plantation can take place,” said Khatri, requesting people to participate.

Highlighting the administration’s effort towards timely delivery services through the Antyodaya SARAL portal, Khatri said, “Considering the overall ranking, the district has improved slightly compared to last year. Some departments are working well, while others are performing poorly, because of which the overall ranking has come down. I am highlighting the issues to responsible officers of these departments to address laxity.”

The Antyodaya SARAL portal is an internal rating mechanism that gives scores to different government departments based on their performance under the Right To Service (RTS) Act, 2014.

Notably, the performance scores of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Cooperation (HSIIDC), departments of labour, transport, and town and country planning, the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), the Haryana Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation, the housing board and health services, have not been performing well, he said.

He also mentioned that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd to make Atal Seva Kendra in rural areas digitised, so people can gain access to government schemes and services.

Besides, he talked about the ongoing renovations of the Civil Lines civil hospital, district library and improvement of the public transport in the city.

“We have introduced new bus routes in the city, to promote public transport, which could help control the air pollution levels,” he said.