 Vilas VaidyaThe chief of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations disaster management department Vilas Vaidya is taking measures to ensure that the metropolis of 120 lakh people is not inconvenienced during the three-day civic strike.
The job of Vaidya and his team of 10 officers will be to ensure that three crucial services water supply, medical services and garbage collection are not affected for want of manpower. We expect the highest number of problems to be related to water supply, health and garbage collection, said Vaidya.
While the BMCs control room will receive any emergency calls from its own offices as well as from citizens, the disaster management team will co-ordinate with voluntary organisations like home guards to dispense help.
 Citizens scramble aboard a State Transport bus at Dadar TT at about 7.30 am today. Pic: Shailesh MuleFor instance, an emergency situation could be a water pipe valve left open by a pump operator. A situation like this would need the help of home guards, if municipal workers are not available.
Though zonal deputy commissioners will be responsible for tackling emergency situations in their respective areas, the disaster management department will be the chief co-ordinating agency for all departments.
The BMCs disaster management department is four years old: but todays strike is only the second that the department is facing. The first strike was in 2000, the year the department was set up.
Yesterday, the disaster management department asked the various departments to send in their contingency plans.
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