The Hindu 17.08.2010
Community help vital in disaster management: DC
Staff Correspondent
| ‘Location-specific plans needed to tackle disasters' |
Making a point:Kodagu Deputy Commissioner, K.H. Ashwatha Narayana Gowda, addressing the audience after inaugurating the Disaster Management training programme in Madikeri on Monday.
Madikeri: Kodagu Deputy Commissioner K.H. Ashwatha Narayana Gowda noted that participation of the people, along with government officials, was necessary in management of natural disasters.
He was inaugurating a three-day workshop at the District Training Institute here on Disaster Management organised by the Administrative Training Institute, Mysore, a press release said here on Monday. Those involved in the training were the presidents and vice-presidents of gram panchayats, secretaries, representatives of non-governmental organisations and heads of government high schools.
The 2008 Act
The Government had brought out the Disaster Management Act in 2008, and maps had been prepared to tackle calamities in every district, Mr. Gowda said. Adequate grants would be provided to the district administrations to manage disasters, he added.
Planning, attending to emergency calls without wasting time and coordination between departments with a proper communication network were the vital points that needed to be considered during management of natural crises, Mr. Gowda said.
The chief executive officer of the Kodagu Zilla Panchayat, A.B. Ibrahim, said natural disasters differed from place to place and hence location-specific plans would have to be made to tackle them. In many cases, solutions to the natural disasters could be found locally. Remaining prepared to tackle natural disasters was one of the methods to minimise damage, Mr. Ibrahim noted. Gram panchayats could make a list of possible causes of natural calamities to fight them effectively, he added.
Resource persons from the Administrative Training Institute, Mysore, Dharmaraj and Vishwanath, later apprised the members present of different ways to tackle natural calamities. The principal of the District Training Centre, Mahadevaiah, welcomed the gathering.
