GUJRAT: A district emergency operation centre (DEOC) has been established at the District Government Complex to monitor the disasters, emergency operations and secondary threats.

The centre will work round the clock throughout the year, said a senior administrative officer while talking to Dawn. He added that the establishment of such a monitoring mechanism had been the brainchild of Senior Member Board of Revenue Babar Hayat Tarar as the DEOCs were being established across the province.

The centre is well-equipped with the modern gadgets to deal with such emergency situations and it has also been linked with the ground staff through a satellite phone as well as the Dehi Markaz Maal (DMMs) that are connected with it.

The officials of police, Rescue 1122, civil defence, land revenue department and the district administration have been deployed to perform their duties at the centre. The centre will manage the district level emergency operations, receive and process the disaster threats or warnings and carry out assessment of damages and needs, said Gujrat Additional Deputy Commissioner Revenue Amir Shahzad Kang. He added that coordination for the resources required to tackle the disaster or emergency situations for tehsil, town, union council and villages level operations would be done by the DEOC for which the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) would help the district administration. He said the government and communities would be kept informed about the evolving situations through these centres. However, collecting information about the vulnerable and risky areas particularly in times of flooding, calamity, law and order situation, Muharram, Eid festivals or any other such things would also be done by the ground or field staff of land revenue and other departments, including health, education and agriculture.

An official of the district disaster management authority (DDMA) told Dawn that it was the first-ever well-coordinated and purpose-built centre for emergency operations at the district level.

It is learnt that the SMBR is likely to inaugurate the DEOC in Gujrat.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2022