Imphal, Nov13: The first day of the disaster management training organized by the Disaster Management Institute, Imphal, Government of Manipur began at Hotel Classic today. The Chief Guest, P.C Lawmkunga, Addl.C.S inaugurated the training, Government of Manipur while Dr.Suhel Akhtar, Commissioner, Relief & Disaster Management, Government of Manipur was the President of the training.
Many resource persons in disaster management delivered speeches with regards to subject.It laid emphasisd on the fact that since India has been experiencing an incomparable economic growth in the recent years branching out to all corners of the world, the state in particular has a varied area for industrial development which opens the risks to chemical & Industrial disasters.
The guest of honor, Dr. Rakesh Dubbey, Director of DMI, Bhopal stated that with the Bhopal gas tragedy in the early 80’s, the country has received a jolt in terms of awareness and prevention of any such outbreaks.
The gas tragedy to this day has left physical and emotional scars affecting lives and crippling thousands of people.
While the state is already threatened by natural disasters every now and then owing to its geographical location, chemical and industrial disasters is now on the rise with many small ventures of industrialization taking place in the state.
The training exposed the need to have a robust disaster management team in place to face such an outbreak as albeit smaller in terms of scale, any disaster could kill, affect & displace thousands for decades.
Stating the fact that disaster preparedness generally fades once an emergency phase is past, the resource persons reiterated the urgent need to be trained, equipped with knowledge and have adequate resources by concerned departments.
A consultant from Germany, Florien B.Lux who was also a guest of honor gave useful and enlightening insights to disaster management with regards to application of information technology in training management. The training exposed the risks and requirement of the government to ramp up the concerned departments who are usually the first responders of any such calamity such as Disaster Management, Fire & Emergency Services, Police, Civil Defence & Homeguards and Social workers who play a critical role in planning preparing, managing and preventing disasters.
The training will conclude tomorrow with more resource persons deliberating on ‘Industrial and Chemical Disaster Hazard Reduction in Manipur’, ‘Regulatory Framework on Chemical & Industrial Disaster Management in India’ and ‘Transportation of Hazmart and Hazchem in Manipur’.
besides having all the above disasters stated we will also discuss some iof the current issues like the traffic systems in manipur. And we need some good institutions and management team so that we can control the disasters to some extent.