SRINAGAR: Minister for Revenue, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, Disaster Management, Abdul Rehman Veeri today said that 300 volunteers would be trained in disaster mitigation in each district in the State.
The Minister was speaking at the inauguration of 2-day Incident Response System(IRS) training programme organized by District Disaster Management Authority Srinagar in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority and State Disaster Management Authority here.
The workshop was attended by Financial Commissioner Revenue, CEO Jhelum & Tawi Flood Recovery Project (JTFRP), Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Chief Engineer System and Operation PDD, Director Fire Services, Commandant SDRF, Director SDMA, SSP Traffic Srinagar, NDMA Experts and other officers from Revenue, Police and other Departments.
Mr Veeri said that it is imperative to train and support volunteers in each district for mitigation of impact of disasters.
“Even in this age of modern technology, we cannot predict calamities like earthquake, cloud bursts. In such a scenario, it’s important that we must be prepared for it so that response can be effective and losses can be minimized,” he said.
Lauding the role of volunteers in saving people during 2014 floods, he said that neighbors and friends are first to reach in such situations and it is important to train volunteers from every locality.
Speaking on the relevance of the workshop, the Minister said that IRS is an effective mechanism for reducing the scope for ad-hoc measures in response. He also said that it incorporates all the tasks that may be performed during Disaster Management irrespective of their level of complexity.
He called upon the officers to organize similar type of workshops in every district so that stakeholders are trained, made aware of their roles for reducing chaos and confusion during the response phase.
Mr Veeri said that State has adopted twin principle of minimizing human suffering during disasters and reduction of financial losses through integration of Disaster Risk Reduction activities into development planning.
Given the State’s Vulnerability to both floods and earthquakes, he said that infrastructure is being designed with upgraded resilient features, which includes contingency planning for future disaster events. He further said that the Project aims at both restoring essential services disrupted by the floods and improving the standard design and practices to increase resilience.
