Govt ready to implement Act on disaster

Radhika D Srivastava / TNN / Dec 24, 2006, 02:17 IST

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The Bihar government is ready to implement the Disaster Management Act, 2005. It is learnt the cabinet will give its final nod in January.

PATNA: The Bihar government is ready to implement the Disaster Management Act, 2005. It is learnt the cabinet will give its final nod in January.
Based on the Act, the state will also bring in place a disaster management policy.
Urban development secretary P K Basu spoke about the massive programme unfolding in the districts of the state to equip communities with disaster management skills.Already, a training for 50,000 villagers in rescue and evacuation is on.
Basu also spoke about a disaster management authority that would be created on the lines of the existing National Disaster Management Authority which is co-sponsored by the UNDP. The state authority will oversee all disaster management operations.

He said in 14 districts considered to be highly prone to disasters such as earthquake, cyclone and floods, a programme to generate awareness, training and capacity building as well as documentation had begun.
Besides the training of villagers, 3,431 engineers and masons had also been trained to construct earthquake-proof structures and retrofit existing buildings.
Basu said, "We have also trained more than 4,000 panchayat samiti members as part of our capacity building programme."

He said during the training of engineers and masons, they were actually made to construct one-room earthquake-proof
lats in order to get hands-on training.
In order to generate awareness about disaster, hoarding and wall paintings, with messages on what to do during an earthquake or flood, have already come up on government buildings. Some of these exist in Patna as well.
Besides, an emergency operation centre will soon come up in Patna. Basu said, "We have acquired land just outside the Old Secretariat. Hopefully construction would begin in January."
In terms of equipment, Bihar is also set to get a number of sophisticated machines to cut steel and concrete.
Some of these machines would also be used for picking up sounds and voices trapped under debris. Basu said, "The machines will be procured with the support of UNDP. These equipment will be very helpful as Bihar does not have sophisticated rescue equipment as of now."
To ensure that people at the district level would be able to handle these machines, booklets on "how to operate an equipment" will be published and distributed in the districts, Basu said.
With the state government’s focus on disaster management, Patna Regional Development Authority (PRDA) has made it mandatory for builders of multi-storey buildings to incorporate earthquake-safety features.
PRDA vice-chairman Sujata Chaturvedi said, "We are concentrating on buildings more than 11 metres in height. But with time, all new constructions would need to be earthquake proof."
For existing buildings, she said, "We will issue an advisory asking owners to retrofit their buildings to make them earthquake-resistant."

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