Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 11: A 2-day State Level Conference on “Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation” today started at Police Auditorium here, in which experts from SAARC Disaster Management Centre, NDMA, UNDP, ASDMA Assam, and Universities of Delhi and Jammu threw light on Disaster Management, Communication and Coordination and Role of NDMA, SDMAs, DMAs and NGOs in Disaster Management.
A large number of participants drawn from different departments across the State and Civil Defence Volunteers are attending the Conference.
In her welcome address, the Additional Director General of Police, Homeguards, Civil Defence & SDRF, D. R. Doley Barman said that aim of the conference was to familiarize the stake holders about the role of disaster management units in the event of natural and manmade disasters and also to seek opinions from the participants during the deliberations through question – answer sessions.
In the inauguration session, Dr. Muzaffar Ahmed from NDMA highlighted the quantum of losses at national and international level and said that in terms of causalities and damages caused to the property due to disasters India ranks at 5th place with average loss of 2 per cent of its GDP. He said that different states in the country are prone to different types of disasters and require differently oriented disaster management skills to save life and property.
Prof. Santosh Kumar, Director SAARC Disaster Management Centre, New Delhi shared some case studies about handling disasters in different geo-climatic settings. He also emphasised on capacity building among all stake holders and need to integrate it with local institutions including panchayats as well.
Nagma Firdous, Senior Specialist NDMA New Delhi threw light on interagency coordination and communication in disasters and pointed out that there were habitations which could remain cut off for days together when massive earthquake of 7.6 magnitude hit Jammu and Kashmir in 2005. She emphasised the need to have Emergency Operation Centres established at various levels with the use of modern technology including GIS and GPS.
Both the sessions were chaired by Dr. Ram Lubahaya, retired ADGP J&K, who also responding to the queries put by the participants. He concluded the session with some suggestions including preparedness at the grass root level and mutual help and self respect in the context of disasters.
During the second session, G. Padmanabhan from UNDP deliberated upon mainstreaming DDR in sectoral programmes and said that while planning for developmental progamme utmost care is to be taken to avert risk component afer execution and in utility. Nandita Hazirika from ASDMA, Assam threw light on the role of State and District level management authorities in Disaster prevention, preparedness, response and management.
She said that well fabricated management authorities with better human resource could be effective post disaster management, while as Mallick from Jammu University gave an over view on earthquake mitigation in Jammu and Kashmir and said that there was need to take every effort to mitigate the loss of life and property in the event of earthquakes through proper disaster management. Vikram Mahajan from Sphere India elaborated role of NGOs in disaster management and said that wherever reach of disasters management committees could be difficult, the local NGOs with expertise and resources could be instrumental in disaster management.
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