Loud and clear: Day after ‘inaudible’ complaints, Mohali gets long-range sirens

The administration today engaged in a siren installation exercise across the district with 30 requisitioned for Kharar and 20 for Zirakpur and Dera Bassi areas.

Deputy Commissioner Komal Mittal said, “We are augmenting the early warning system comprehensively with some of them having a 15-km range. The orders were placed yesterday and the installation will be complete by the evening.”

Notably, the action comes in the backdrop of residents in Mohali, Kharar, Gharuan and Zirakpur complaining about the “inaudible” air raid siren sounded on Thursday.

Earlier, 10 sirens with limited range were operational in Zirakpur and Dera Bassi. Officials remained tightlipped over the exact number of sirens in Mohali and Kharar, but assured that the mechanism was being strengthened.

Most of the sirens are being installed at municipal offices, BDPOs, and government buildings in Dera Bassi. In Kharar, gurdwaras and religious institutions have also been chosen to install sirens and loudspeakers. Rosters are also being prepared for manning the facilities in shifts, officials added. “Probably due to high-density population areas...,” they reasoned.

Administration officials admitted that at present sirens are being operated on standalone basis with difficulties being encountered in synchronising them on the sub-division level. “As of now, there is no integrated mechanism for it,” an official said.

With schools, colleges closed, students make beeline for home

A day after Punjab government ordered the closure of school, colleges, and universities, a large number of outstation students flocked to nearby bus stands and railway stations to leave for their hometowns.

Hundreds of students studying at the Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Landran, boarded buses at their campus as the exams have been postponed.

Addressing the developmemnts, a Chandigarh University spokesperson, meanwhile, said the hostels remain open as usual, but added, “Since the exams have been postponed, the students who want to go home of their own can go. The hostels will remain open as usual.”

Besides hostellers, students living in various paying guest accommodations in Kharar too have begun leaving for home.

As a result of the mass movement, local eateries witnessed a lean day today.

The local railway station and bus stands, on the other hand, dealt with a large number of people — mostly students looking for a ticket home.