By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, May 10: The State Disaster Management Department is gearing up to face the challenges of the monsoon season by coordinating with all related departments for quicker response.
These departments are Health, PWD (Roads), PHE, SDRF, IMD, and Education apart from Civil Defence.
Commissioner and Secretary for Disaster Management, Sanjay Goyal said the departmental heads connected with the deputy commissioners, who are also in charge of providing relief in the districts, during a state-level coordination committee meeting on Friday.
“Monsoon starts in June. The meeting was held to assess the preparedness of the departments for emergency response,” he said.
“All the deputy commissioners are holding district-level coordination committee meetings to be ready for any eventuality or disaster. They have been asked to make a vulnerability assessment to take appropriate action,” Goyal said.
He added that the deputy commissioners have updated the district-level disaster management plans and completed their resource mapping.
Given the importance of the communication network during disasters, the district officials have been asked to take the help of the MPRO to ensure all channels of communication are always active, Goyal said.
“Each deputy commissioner has been provided with Rs 20 crore so that relief operations are not affected during emergencies,” he said, asserting that the process of releasing funds to the beneficiaries or victims of disasters has been ironed out.
“We were able to transfer money into the accounts of the beneficiaries within 24-48 hours of the damage caused by the recent cyclonic storms,” he added.
Goyal said the IMD is updating his department for the disaster management teams to know what to expect.
This year, natural calamities and disasters have damaged – partially or wholly – some 2,800 houses. “We have been informed that fiscal relief was credited into the accounts of the beneficiaries within 48 hours.
Goyal further said that a detailed risk or hazard assessment of Shillong is being done to minimise damages to life and property.