IMPHAL, May 7: The Department of Relief & Disaster Management under the Government of Manipur has set up a Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) at the State Level and the District Level for emergency communication from district to state and from state to the Central Government, as conveyed by DIPR in a press release.
It said the Department has notified and constituted 35 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) drawn from various units of the Police Department under section 45 of the Disaster Management Act 2005 as a specialist response team to any disaster in the State and that the SDRF personnel have been trained on Disaster Management particularly on Search and Rescue, First Aid etc. at National Civil Defense College, Nagpur.
The Manipur Fire & Emergency Services has also been declared as the first responder to any disaster in the State, it acknowledged.
During the year 2015-16, the State of Manipur experienced two major disasters starting from July 26, 2015. The disasters have claimed 16 lives and caused extensive damages to the standing crops, fish farms, roads & bridges and buildings.
The Relief and Disaster Management Department has released altogether Rs 10.10 crore to the Deputy Commissioners for the relief operations and payment of ex-gratia to the families of the deceased persons, the release stated.
On January 4 last, Manipur was hit by a major earthquake with the magnitude of 6.7 in the Richter scale that claimed the lives of 10 persons and injury to 120 persons and caused extensive damage to altogether 3218 buildings consisting of both government & private buildings.
To meet the urgent requirement of the Deputy Commissioners during relief operations, providing relief materials, ex-gratia payment and reconstruction of the fully and partially damage private houses, a sum of Rs. 10 crore has been released to the Deputy Commissioners, it said.
During the last year various training programmes were conducted on School Safety and Preparation of School Disaster Management Plans, Building Codes & Design and Basic Disaster Management Concepts to various stakeholders such as teachers, engineers , masons, police officials, VDF, NSS, NCC, NYKS officials and community volunteers and elected members of the locals bodies.
The Directorate of Civil Defense which was placed under the Department of Relief & Disaster Management trained around 2000 volunteers of NCCV, Home Guards, Local Club Members and Students of the Schools and Colleges, DLOs, Police Personnel including MCS/MPS officers during 2015-16 under Disaster Management Institute, Manipur which is the State Nodal Institute for the implementation of GOI-UNDP Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Urban Risk Reduction (URR) Programmes.
Under the Centrally sponsored scheme of the Ministry of Home on strengthening of Civil Defense set up and mainstreaming of Civil Defense on disaster risk reduction programmes, all nine districts have been identified as Most Vulnerable Districts (MVDs) and a sum of Rs. 92.32 lakh per MVD is authorized to every district for various components during the entire regime/duration of the scheme.
The 1st installment of Grant in Aid released during the financial year, 2014-15 by the MHA for Government of Manipur is 179.68 lakh @ Rs. 19.96 lakh per district. The amount has been deposited with the DCs/EDs/DRDA for setting up of infrastructures in their respective district.
For strengthening of the Civil Defence setup at the districts, the District Magistrate and Additional District Magistrate have been declared as Controller & Deputy Controller of the Civil Defence in their respective district, DIPR in the release elaborated.
It may be recalled that the Department of Relief & Disaster management, Government of Manipur was set up as a separate Department in 2006 as per the provision of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 in order to respond effectively to various disasters/calamities namely earthquake, landslides, floods, forest fires, pest attack etc. in the State.