RAWALPINDI, May 22: The district government, Tehsil municipal administrations and the cantonment board have not yet provided funds to the Civil Defence Organization (CDO) to prepare itself for emergencies, sources told Dawn.
The organization has to receive about Rs2million, which is impeding its emergency preparations in view of the heightened tensions between India and Pakistan.
The CDO requires funds for procuring gadgets for bomb disposal, rescue operation, fire-fighting and first aid.
“With war becoming more and more imminent, the situation is becoming too critical and it is being feared if the Civil Defence Organiztion will ever have to go ahead unprepared,” a source said.
All these administrative units had been directed to pay one per cent of their respective budgets to the Civil Defence four months ago on January 22.
Despite having promised to release funds within two days, none of these administrative units have so far even bothered to respond to various reminders sent to them during the past four months, the sources said.
The cantonment board has not paid its share of funds for the last six to seven years, whereas the district and Tehsil administrations have not been paying this amount for the last couple of years.
Speaking about the condition of the equipment available with the Civil Defence, they said the organization was critically short of emergency-related paraphernalia.
“We have only 50 per cent of the required gadgets and that too are outdated and would not be of any help during modern-day emergencies,” one of the sources said.
The sources said in the past the deputy commissioner used to be the controller of Civil Defence and was normally well informed about the requirements, but eversince the new system took over last year there had not been all that “communication” between the Civil Defence and the new administrative set up.
“Now only requests can be made and that normally go unheard,” a source said.
The Rawalpindi Tehsil municipal administration and cantonment board have not so far reviewed the availability and serviceability of electric sirens installed in the areas falling in their jurisdiction, the sources said. They further said almost half of the sirens were out of order.
The buildings department has yet to survey the dangerous buildings in the city, an assignment entrusted to it four months ago.
Referring to the preparation status of the Civil Defence, the sources said it had been on high alert since January and no new orders in this regard had been issued as yet. They said the next step, in case of any emergency, would be the activation of public posts.