All departments should coordinate to avoid repeat of tardy response to disaster in Uttarakhand: Rajnath

New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday reviewed the measures being put in place for pilgrims and tourists in Uttarakhand as he told all agencies to "regularly interact" among themselves in order to avoid a repeat of the tardy response to last year`s rain and floods in the state.

The Home Minister directed all departments and agencies, both of the central and state government, to pool in their efforts in ensuring a secured visit of people from the state and outside during the monsoon. During the meeting held in the Home Ministry here, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) informed that it would be issuing three-day advance weather bulletins for 14 identified locations in the state from June 20 and these would be updated on a 12-hour basis. "The IMD was advised to use simple language in their warnings/bulletins to enable their effective implementation on the ground. It was decided that the state government would share the contact numbers of the registered pilgrims/tourists with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology so that nowcasting weather forecasting to be used by IMD could be shared with the tourists/pilgrims through bulk SMSes," a statement issued by the ministry said. Nowcasting means forecast of the weather within the next six hours. Singh, according to the statement, "emphasised the need for regular interaction among the concerned stakeholders and directed that all possible measures should be taken to avoid repeat of the kind of response seen after the 2013 disaster. "The Home Minister further directed all possible support should be extended in a timely manner by all the central ministries, departments and agencies to authorities of Uttarakhand to meet any eventuality in the monsoon season."