Bhubaneswar, Jan 7: there is an addition to the previous 10 Disaster Rapid Action Force teams. The state government has added 10 new units by spending around Rs 70 crore for it. This was informed by PK Mohapatra, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) on Friday while attending a state-level empowered committee meeting. The meeting was chaired by Aditya Prasad Padhi, Chief Secretary.
Informing about the steps been taken for better disaster management, Padhi said that fire officers and block level officer will be given training and every block and panchayat will also get the weather forecasting equipment. For better drought management, 600 automatic rain and weather forecasting equipment will be installed by the state government and till now 502 have already been set up. Apart from this, by April, 2017, Early Warning Dissemination System will be installed at the state’s all local districts, informed Padhi. Adding to it, Mohapatra informed that, 122 automatic alarm systems have been installed which will warn the people at the coastal areas about the possibilities of flood, cyclone and tsunami.
It is planned to increase the number of cyclone shelters in the state. As of now, 1, 500 such shelters are working in the state and as per the plan, more 100 new shelters will be set up by the state government.
