Monsoon fury: Central teams to visit Punjab, HP, J&K to assess damage

These central teams, constituted on the directions of Union home minister Amit Shah, will visit early next week the flood/landslide-affected districts and make on-the-spot assessment of the situation

The Union home ministry has set up inter-ministerial central teams (IMCTs), each for Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand, to assess damage caused by heavy rainfall, floods, flash floods, cloudbursts and landslides.

SDRF personnel load flood relief material to distribute to stranded people, in Kapurthala. (ANI)

These central teams, constituted on the directions of Union home minister Amit Shah, will visit early next week the flood/landslide-affected districts and make on-the-spot assessment of the situation and relief works being carried out by the state governments, an official statement said on Sunday. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the central government stands shoulder to shoulder with the states affected by natural calamities in mitigating the hardships faced by the people, it said.

The central teams led by a joint secretary-level officer in the home ministry/National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) comprise senior officials from the ministries/departments of expenditure, agriculture and farmers’ welfare, Jal Shakti, power, road transport and highways, and rural development, the statement said. The MHA is in touch with senior officials from the affected states/UT, and has extended all necessary logistical assistance through the deployment of a requisite number of teams from the NDRF, army and air force, which are helping them in the relief and rescue operations, it said.