SHILLONG: Deputy Chief Minister and in charge of Revenue and Disaster Management, RC Laloo, stated that government-industry-community interface plays a major role in off-setting management and responses during emergencies.
He was speaking at the State Level Workshop on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation to pave the way for the establishment of Public-Private partnership as a strategic approach to mitigate disasters in the state.
“Though Meghalaya is not a highly-industrialised state, we are definitely ambitious on this account and have a fair share of private, medium and small scale industries spread all over the state apart from the public industries,” he told the gathering of government officials, corporate houses, stakeholders at Pinewood Hotel on Friday.
According to him, industrialisation in the state needs to be partnered with appropriate disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation activities so as to ensure that disasters does not impede industrial development and for industrial development not to lead to any disaster.
In this connection, Laloo observed that Meghalaya has the opportunity to steer industrial development in a manner that take hazards, risks, vulnerability into account for the safety and continuity of not only the industrial plants but also the population, infrastructure and environment which the industry is placed in.
He added that SDMA, Department of Factories and Boilers, Industrial Health and Safety, Labour, Department of Health, Environment, Pollution Control, Police, Fire, Industry and Commerce etc., are directly responsible for disaster response and can play a major role in disaster prevention-mitigation and disaster response related organizations in the contest of industrial disasters.
Referring to the significance of the workshop, Laloo said that it would go a long way in encouraging and motivating the private sector for taking up disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation activities for sustainability and resilience building.
He added that the workshop is relevant at a time when the state is witnessing a rise in not only urbanisation and industrialisation but also in the number of disasters both man-made and natural.
Meanwhile, HB Marak, Secretary, Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, stated that corporate sectors play a major role in post disaster and relief, rehabilitation and recovery efforts.