Vijayawada: Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha has directed the fire services officials to avail funds of the 15th Finance Commission for modernisation of the department.
The home minister held a review meeting with the state disaster response and fire services department in the presence of home secretary Harish Gupta and fire director general Shankhabrata Bagchi here on Monday.
The meeting reviewed the problems being faced by the department and the need for mobilisation of funds to acquire more fire tenders and buildings for fire stations.
The home minister asked the officials to come up with a plan for modernisation of the fire services by availing the FC funds. The state government would provide funds to meet the urgent requirement. “Prepare a long-term plan for five years and let us get modern equipment to deal with calamities like fire accidents, cyclonic storms, floods and road/rail mishaps,” she said.
