UT Ladakh towards greater role of Executive Councillors in Handling future Disasters: Amit

STATE TIMES NEWS

LEH: Secretary Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, Union Territory of Ladakh, Amit Sharma on Tuesday chaired an important meeting on Disaster Management as a follow-up to recent NDMA Mock Exercises and communications sent to Lieutenant Governor by NDMA team on same.
The meeting was attending by Additional Deputy Commissioners of Leh and Kargil, Deputy Secretary DMRRR Abdul Majid, DSP Sonam from UTDRF, DSP Pradeep Singh, Head Emergency Operations Centre Ladakh, Project Managers of IT/DMRRR amongst others.
One of the primary issues which were taken-up and decided during the meeting chaired by Amit Sharma was execution of the vision of Lieutenant Governor Brig Dr B.D Mishra (Retd) regarding empowerment of Executive Councillors of LAHDC and KAHDC respectively towards handling future disasters by adding the portfolio of Disaster Management and Relief so that they can play an important role in mitigating disasters and leading relief / reconstruction work during future disasters which may happen in Ladakh.
Amit Sharma drew timelines for finalisation of UT Disaster Management Plan, Notification of Incident Command System with designation of officers of respective departments towards handling Disasters, moving a proposal for raising a full-fledged Battalion of UT Disaster Response Force, strengthening Emergency Operations Centre and ERSS, etc in the UT.
Besides this, another major decision taken in this meeting led by Amit Sharma included ensuring presence of National Disaster Response Force team in twin districts of Leh and Kargil before the onset of harsh winter season and continued efforts towards percolating the skills to handle disasters down till the level of Gram Panchayats through Aapda Mitras.
Before concluding the Meeting, Amit Sharma mentioned that the officers/officials of the department shall be engaged in organising awareness programmes for localised disasters Cloudburst, Landslide, Avalanche Management with the help of NDMA in coming days and there shall be regular meetings taken to discuss Action Taken on last meeting minutes.