Himalayan Institute of Disaster Management and Climate Change to come up at Pakyong

VARIOUS OTHER INITIATIVES IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND PREPAREDNESS ALSO ON THE ANVIL


VISHNU NEOPANEY
GANGTOK, 02 Aug: The State Government has formally taken a policy decision to establish a Himalayan Institute of Disaster Management and Climate Change in Pakyong at the Sub-Division Complex within the next three years. The State Government has been planning for such an institution for a while now and its resolve made more urgent in light of the 18 September 2011 earthquake.
The Institute will undertake capacity building in Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation and Response and offer training for State Disaster Response Force, Civil Defense and Fire Services as well. This facility can be utilized by all the Northeastern states for their capacity building towards disaster preparedness.
The policy decision is expected to be announced by the State government during its two-day workshop on the eve of the first anniversary of the earthquake on 17 and 18 September, next month. On the first day of the workshop, technical session on disaster management and preparedness will be held and disaster affected states like Assam, Odisha, Gujurat, Bihar, Karnataka and Kerala along with Sikkim will give presentations on disaster management.
The second day will see deliberations on the role and preparedness while Finance Minster, P Chidambaram is expected to attend the programme as well.
Besides this, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority [SSDMA] has finalized the introduction of lessons on State School Safety Programme, making all schools disaster resilient structurally as well as through capacity building activities from the next session.
The State has also initiated the formulation of Sikkim Disaster Management Plan, District Level Disaster Management plans, Gangtok Urban Disaster Management Plan, City Disaster Management Plans for all cities, using the Gangtok Urban Disaster Management Plan as a model by setting up an effective ‘Fire Safety System’.
The state government will also formulate Model Village Disaster Management Plans subsequently, to be implemented across all the villages of Sikkim. Large number of public awareness campaigns on disaster risk reduction and preparedness will also be carried out.
The state government has also decided to bring in technically equipped architects, engineers, construction workers in disaster resilient construction techniques. Also in the pipeline are strategic plan for transportation access, rapid damage assessment, search and rescue and relief distribution in post disaster situation in remote areas and model monastery retrofitting and conservation projects.
The State Disaster Management Authority is working towards a state-wide programme for making hospitals and health facilities safe from disasters and prepared to manage mass causalities.