Itanagar: As the raging forest fire continues to engulf forest plantations on the outskirts of the State capital for the past couple of days, Itanagar Capital Complex Deputy Commissioner in-charge Sachin Rana on Wednesday convened an ‘emergency’ meeting with all the stakeholders to discuss regarding the strategies to be adopted to control the forest fire in the Ganga-Chimi area.
At the meeting, the DC said that corrective actions have to be taken to stop the forest fire at any cost. He also directed the concerned RFO to lodge an FIR against the ‘miscreants’ and directed the capital police to ascertain the cause of the fire and take necessary actions as per law.
The DC informed that a team, led by ADC Shweta Nagarkoti as Incident Commander, has been formed which will proceed to the incident site early tomorrow morning while adding that additional manpower from Police, Fire and Emergency Services, SDRF, Forest, Aapda Mitra volunteers have been deployed to assist the team.
He also asked the ZPM and GPC of Ganga and Chimi to deploy local youths to assist the team in firefighting in the mountainous terrain.
During the meeting, officers from the Forest, and Fire and Emergency Services Departments informed that all-out efforts, including deployment of men and machineries, have been made to control the fire.
“However, due to inaccessible terrain, the men and machineries could reach only up to a certain extent and the fire couldn’t be doused completely,” stated a press note from the DC office.
Zilla Parishad Member of Batt/Ganga, Taro Tagia informed that apart from the departmental men and machineries, many local youths have also been engaged to control the fire since the last two days.
“The team reached the location and managed to control the fire upto some extent but unfortunately it spread to other locations,” the ZPM said.
The DC, meanwhile, appealed to the denizens of the Itanagar Capital Region to remain alert and to inform the District Administration, Disaster Management Department or the Police whenever such incidents occur so that early measures could be adopted to tackle such events.
Among others, ADCs Shweta Nagarkoti and ADC Jiken Bomjen, EAC (Itanagar) Nangram Pingkap, EAC Khoda Lasa, ASP Kamdam Sikom, DDMO Moromi Dodum Sonam and Gram Panchayat Chairpersons of Ganga & Chimi attended the meeting.
