category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to take stock of the situation in the state due to continuous heavy rains and to speed up the relief work. Rains continued to lash parts of Punjab and Haryana on Monday, flooding many places, forcing the mobilisation of flood relief columns of the army s Western Command to assist the two states in rescue and evacuation efforts. Verma held the meeting with administrative secretaries of the departments concerned, deputy commissioners, state police chief Gaurav Yadav, senior superintendents of police and representatives of the Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). The Punjab chief minister s Special Chief Secretary, A Venu Prasad was also present at the meeting. Civil and police administrations have been deployed in the field following Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann s instructions to monitor the situation in the state, Verma said, adding that field officers should be in constant contact with public representatives.He said there was no dearth of funds to deal with the situation caused by heavy rains and Rs 33.50 crore has been released immediately from the disaster relief fund of the state. In the meeting, the representative of the Water Resources Department said the water level in Bhakra Dam is 1,614.89 feet against the capacity of 1,680 feet. The water level in Pong Dam is 1,350.63 feet while its capacity is 1,390 feet. In Ranjit Sagar Dam, the water level is 1,706.26 feet against the capacity of 1,731.99 feet. Asserting that saving lives was the top priority, Verma directed the officials that priority should be given to the safe evacuation of people from low-lying and flood-prone areas. He asked the power and telecom departments to ensure uninterrupted service. The water supply department should also ensure providing clean drinking water while the health department should be prepared to fight waterborne diseases, he said. The chief secretary took stock of the situation in which the deputy commissioners of Mohali, Patiala, Rupnagar and Sangrur districts said the situation is serious in some places, but the administration is working promptly. Meanwhile, the Punjab Police along with teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have scaled up the rescue and evacuation operations in flood-ravaged districts in the state, Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav said here on Monday. The worst-affected districts include Mohali, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Jalandhar Rural and Patiala. CPs SSPs have been asked to remain in the field and personally monitor the situation in their districts concerned at regular intervals. DGP Gaurav Yadav said 15 teams of NDRF and two units of SDRF have been deployed in the worst-hit districts to plug breaches and carry out evacuation and rescue operations. Additionally, 12 columns of the army have been called to help the civil administration in the districts, including Rupnagar, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepur, Jalandhar, SBS Nagar, Mohali and Pathankot, he said. (editor dailyworld.in)