A meeting of the State Managing Committee of the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), J&K State Branch, was held at the Raj Bhavan here today under the Chairmanship of Governor N. N. Vohra, who is President of IRCS, J&K. At the outset the meeting observed a minute’s silence in the memory of all those who lost their lives during the recent floods in the State.
Roma Wani, Honorary General Secretary, briefed the Committee about the rescue operations carried out by the IRCS since the very first day of the floods. She also informed the Committee about the ongoing relief work and certain initiatives which are proposed to be taken for the rehabilitation of the flood victims. She said that about 2000 flood affected families would be adopted by the IRCS, J&K, and a proposal in this regard, had been sent to the National Headquarters. The Governor complimented Ms. Wani for the various initiatives taken by IRCS under her leadership to provide relief to the affected persons.
The Governor asked the Hony Gen. Secy to keep the State Committee informed about the outcome of the ongoing work to carry out relief and rehabilitation operations and asked both the pisional Commissioners to undertake a rapid review of the Standard Operating Procedures of the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) to see how best the work of IRCS could be fully harmonized with the efforts of the State Government. As regards the advice received from the National Hqrs of the Red Cross regarding elections being held to select the persons who would manage the Regional and State Committees the Governor advised that a Committee comprising Principal Secretary to the Governor, Principal Finance Secretary, Ms. Seema Khajuria, both the pisional Commissioners and Hony. Gen. Secretary IRCS should evolve a well considered approach regarding the manner and extent to which the National Hqrs prescriptions should apply to J&K.For building the human resource of the IRCS the Governor urged enlarging and strengthening the corpus of trained volunteers and keeping a reserve of at least 100-150 volunteers per district with a focus on both quality and quantity.
The Governor suggested training of young boys and girls of the Bharat Scouts and Guides in Red Cross related activities. He stressed working out an annual calendar of training programmes for imparting Red Cross related training at the schools, colleges and other institutions of learning.The Committee reviewed the progress of Red Cross Complex in Srinagar, issue of licenses to establish Jan Aushadhi Drug Stores; construction of Blood Banks etc. It also discussed the time bound issue of new Identity Cards for the Red Cross volunteers, after all the existing Identity Cards had been returned fresh Identity Cards be issued by the District Superintendents of Police on the basis of lists to be provided by the Deputy Commissioners. It was also decided to institute 10 trophies as annual awards to be given to the volunteers/institutions for work of outstanding nature in Red Cross related activities.
Earlier, Ms. Roma Wani, Honorary General Secretary, IRCS, J&K State Branch, made a detailed presentation to highlight the activities undertaken for Resource Mobilization, Training Programmes conducted, and the Action Plan for future activities by the IRCS.
Mohammad Iqbal Khanday, Chief Secretary, J&K; K. Rajendra Kumar, DGP, J&K; B. B. Vyas, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Principal Secretary, Finance; Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary, Home; Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Principal Secretary to the Governor; Shantmanu, pisional Commissioner, Jammu; Rohit Kansal, pisional Commissioner, Kashmir; Prof. Nusrat Andrabi, A.M. Mir, Prof. Mohammad Abdullah Charoo, Seema Khajuria, Y.V. Sharma, Members of the State Managing Committee, Farooq Ahmad Shah, Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar; Sajad Ahmad Khan, Deputy Commissioner, Pulwama; Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Deputy Commissioner Shopian; Sarmad Hafiz, Deputy Commissioner Ganderbal; Farooq Ahmad Lone, Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla; Itrat Hussain Rafiqi, Deputy Commissioner, Kupwara; Nisar Hussain Wani, Deputy Commissioner Kulgam; Tasaduq Jeelani, Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag; Dr. Saleem Ur Rehman, Director Health Services, Kashmir; A.J. Chaket, and R.C. Puri, Honorary Secretaries, Regional Red Cross Committee, Kashmir and Jammu, participated in the meeting.