Uttarkhand Police tells officers to be prepared in the wake of storm warning

With the weather department warning of rain and hailstorm in parts of Uttarakhand, the state police today asked allits districtheads to stay alert and prepared.

ADGP (Law and Order) Ashok Kumar asked the SPs and Senior SPs of all districts to be prepared in view of the MeT department warning and deploy adequate force on river banks, waterfalls and similar places of tourist interest where people take photographs, a statement released here said.

State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), disaster response teams and water police personnel should be ready with necessary equipmentat all police stations to jump into action in case of an emergency, it said quoting the ADG.

The hill patrol units and tourism policewere also asked to inform 'chardham' pilgrims about the MeT department warning and send weather updates on WhatsApp so that they could take necessary precautions.

The MeT department has warned of rain and hailstorm in seven districts of Uttarakhand over the next 24 hours including Dehradun, Haridwar, Pauri, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Pithoragarh and Champawat, it said.