Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, September 29
The Gurdaspur district administration on Thursday activated the ‘Disaster Management Plan’ evacuating scores of villages located in the 10 km periphery of the international border.
Although BSF and Police maintained that there was nothing to worry about, there was palpable tension in the air as villagers were reluctant to move out.
Educational institutions were ordered to be closed till further orders. Residents of border villages have been asked to switch off their lights during the night. The Power authorities were making arrangements to disconnect power supply to the border villages.
Repeated announcements were being made from Gurdwara loudspeakers asking people to leave their houses and “spend the night with relatives and friends living in other villages.” Police gypsies too were making the same announcement.
For the last several years the administration has been in possession of a ‘Disaster Management Plan’ which is to be put in place whenever there is a threat of flood from the Ravi and Beas rivers.
The plan came in handy today following which schools, colleges, community halls and religious places were vacated to make arrangement for the villagers.
Nearly a hundred villages falling in Dorangla, Dera Baba Nanak and Behrampur blocks (Gurdaspur), Narot Jaimal Singh and Bamial blocks (Pathankot) were vacated within hours of the police receiving verbal instructions from the state government.
Initially residents were wary of moving to new places but the administration officials nevertheless managed to convince them that “it was in their benefit that they were being shifted to safer places.”