Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena stresses to develop capacity building measures to mitigate the impact of disasters

Shimla : Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena while chairing a review meeting on the post-disaster needs assessment said that the state government was working towards strengthening the disaster management system and mainly focusing on the post-disaster needs including relief and rehabilitation. The Post-disaster assessment has been done by the field staff of various departments in two different phases particularly emphasizing the infrastructure and damage to the public and private property and agricultural land.

He said that an advance technology based system would be developed for weather forecasting system in the state. In order to save precious human lives, compliance of the rules of Urban and Town Planning Act will be ensured in urban areas and planned construction works will be promoted.  It will be ensured that all the provisions of Dam Safety and Regulation Act are adhered strictly and in case of releasing waters from the reservoirs, a proper warning system has to be sounded keeping in view the safety of people living downstream along the river banks so that damage could be minimized.

The Chief Secretary said that considering the disaster sensitivity of the state, it was extremely important to develop human resources so as to improve the quality of skills and for that emphasis is to be laid on disaster-related capacity-building measures at the Panchayat and at the village level besides preparing the people to deal with disasters quickly.

Kunal Satyarthi, Joint Secretary of the National Disaster Management Authority gave a detailed presentation in the meeting. The proceedings of the meeting were conducted by Special Secretary Revenue DC. Rana.