Crate-bound machinery cuts off city

The officials are blaming the Public Works Department for the delay in the completion of a building, being especially constructed for the purpose. Unless the building is complete, the equipment cannot be installed, say the officials.

Additional chief secretary (revenue), in his recent report reviewing the progress of the V-SAT linkage in the Pune division, has also expressed concern over the slow pace of construction of the building. The same building will serve as the facility for the computerisation of the collectorate.

The ambitious linkage plan is facing teething problems in other districts of the division too. The uninterrupted power supply (UPS), the most essential component of the linkage system, is yet to be made available at the district-level.

In Sangli, the V-SAT commissioning will take one more month and in Satara another couple of days. On the other hand, in Solapur district the repeater machinery for V-SAT is not complete.

V-SAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) facilitates communication with the help of satellite. The two ends are not connected through direct telephone lines, But are instead hooked up to the communication satellite through V-SAT. The instrument comes handy in slow speed operations and is useful in transfer of data.

According to the State Government’s District Disaster Management Action Plan (DDMAP), conceived after the devastating Killari earthquake, all the important government departments will be linked through V-SAT for effective communication.

These include divisional commissionerate, district collectorates, police commissionerate control room, district police superintendent control room, earthquake and rehabilitation department at Mantralaya, revenue and forest department, Chief Secretary’s office, irrigation control, sub-divisional offices and all municipal corporations.

The DDMAP policy aims to protect life, environment and property while ensuing mitigation of the disaster to the maximum extent possible, relief to those affected and restoration of normalcy at the earliest.

It is targeted at capacity building and prompt utilisation of resources in a disaster situation through partnership of Government of Maharashtra (GoM), non-government organisations (NGOs) private initiatives and the community.