District Development Commissioner Poonch, Tariq Ahmad Zargar chaired a meeting with officers from police and civil administration to review the overall disaster preparedness and discuss the modalities for the procurement of necessary equipment required for the disaster management operations to be done easily and effectively in this far-off border and hilly district.DDC who is also the chairperson of District Disaster Management Authority stressed upon the Chief Education Officer to prepare the students for necessary training so that they can act as volunteers and manpower resource to be utilized as rescue teams during disasters.He called upon the officers to involve maximum community/civil society members who in turn shall identify volunteer’s persons from disaster prone areas for capacity building measures/training programs, refresher courses for these volunteers to handle the situation effectively.DDC urged upon education authorities for commencing Information Education and Communication (IEC) activities in educational institutions to raise awareness among students regarding immediate response towards manmade and natural disasters to minimize loss of life and property.Threadbare discussions were also held regarding procurement of necessary equipment required to tackle emergency during disaster.
It was informed in the meeting that 50% of funds shall be utilized for procurement of critical rescue equipment, 20% for capacity building, 20% for innovation projects involving community based disaster preparedness projects & 10% on (IEC) information education and communication activities.DDC asked the officers for setting up emergency operation centre (EOC), wireless communications and other facilities for which land has already been identified in village Bhainch.The Chairman instructed the CMO to direct medical staff to give first priority to the patients having heart related problems and who come up or rescued from the trauma of disaster.Education department was also asked to provide list of schools that shall be utilized as disaster management shelters in any exigency.Officers present in the meeting apprised DDC about the community based disaster management, where they revealed that community based activities would be undertaken by involving management committees of mosques, gurduwaras and temples.DDC stressed on coordination between all the concerned departments for better results.