District Development Commissioner, Rohit Khajuria today reviewed the disaster preparedness here at a meeting of District Disaster Management Authority attended by Officers from police and civil departments. After detailed review, Block and Village level disaster management committees were established to deal with the situation of pre and post disaster to minimize losses both related to economy and human life. The DC said disaster management plan is for evolving synergy among various departments for prompt response during any eventuality. He also called for providing basic training to the volunteers as well as other identified human resource to be pooled in from different government departments as standby workforce. He informed that an Emergency Operation Centre/Control room has been established in the district which acts as a central point for information gathering, processing and decision making more specifically to combat the disaster.Taking the appraisal of preparedness of the departments, the DDC called upon the Police, Health, PHE, PDD, Civil Defence, Red Cross, Flood Control to submit updated inventory of the available infrastructure with them. He also directed for initiating process to procure relief and rescue equipments like tents, life jackets, boats, pre fabricated huts, heavy duty genset, gas cutter, satellite phones and other disaster response tools at district and tehsil level.The DDC called for adopting SOP’s to minimize the response time and effective relief and rehabilitation during any calamity.Stressing on adoption of a holistic, comprehensive and integrated multi-hazard approach focusing on building strategic partnerships at various levels, he said Close coordination among the departments is of utmost important for effective rescue and response. “It should be based on inter-sectoral coordination, capacity development of all stakeholders at all levels and in all sectors through periodic mock drills, community participation, and involvement of cooperation with other agencies,” the DDC stressed and underscored the need for well planned Incident Response System and cost efficient disaster response effort.ADDC, Shubra Sharma, ADC Kathua, Ghansham Singh, ASP, Nasir Khan, ACD, CEO, Engineers and other concerned district officers were present at the meeting.