New delhi : Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting in New Delhi to review the preparedness of flood management.

During the meeting, HM Shah reviewed the long-term measures to formulate a comprehensive and far-reaching policy to mitigate the menace of floods in the country. He also reviewed the action taken on the decisions made in last year’s meeting, as per a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) statement.

Along with this, new technologies being adopted by all the concerned agencies and the expansion of their network for flood management were discussed during the meeting. HM Shah also reviewed the preparations to deal with the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), it said.

He also emphasised on optimum use of satellite imagery provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) by various agencies for flood and water management. The Home Minister appealed to all the Indian states and union territories to timely implement the advisories issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for flood management, it added.

He directed the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Central Water Commission (CWC) to complete the process of recalibrating all the equipment used in flood forecast at the earliest, it said. HM Shah instructed the concerned departments to conduct a detailed study of the recent floods in Sikkim and Manipur and submit a report to the MHA, it added.

He directed to ensure that the floodgates of all major dams are in good condition. He said that the flood monitoring centres of the CWC should be in accordance with the requirements and of international standards, it said.

The Home Minister said that the non-perennial rivers are prone to more soil erosion and siltation thus resulting in floods. He directed that efforts should be made to upgrade the forecast system of water level of rivers for better flood management, it added.

HM Shah while saying that at least 50 large ponds in the Northeast should be constructed to divert and store the water of river Brahmaputra in these ponds, added that it will also help in developing agriculture, irrigation and tourism in those areas at a low cost and help in tackling floods eventually benefiting the local economy, it said.

The Home Minister further said that the IMD’s alerts regarding lightning strikes should be disseminated to the public on time through Short Message Service (SMS), television, FM radio besides other mediums, it added.

He emphasised on the need to integrate weather, rainfall and flood warning related apps developed by various departments so that their benefits could reach the targeted population, it further said.