JAMMU: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today while chairing the State Executive Committee (SEC) Meeting for State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) gave its approval for inclusion of 5 more local disasters to the already notified list of disasters as per SDRF norms. Besides the Principal Secretary Home and DMRR&R, the meeting was attended by other members of the SEC including Principal Secretary Finance; ADGP L&O; Divisional Commissioner Kashmir/Jammu and Secretary Revenue.
Deputy Commissioners attended the meeting through video conferencing from their respective offices. During this high level meeting, the members of SEC had consensus on adding five more disasters of local nature to the already notified list as per SDRF. These include Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF), Lightening & Thunderstorm, Heavy Snowfall, Incidents of Man-Animal Conflict and Boat Capsizing.
These disasters were notified as UT specific disasters for disbursement of the benefits to the affected persons as per the guidelines/items and norms set under SDRF. This step is going to bring much requisite relief to hundreds of people becoming victims of such disasters. The SEC also gave its accent to release of over Rs 6 Cr in favour of Deputy Commissioners of Baramulla, Ganderbal, Kupwara, Srinagar, Rajouri and Ramban on their requisition for additional funds for meeting the expenses of various disasters which have occurred in these districts during this year.
It also decided to release an amount of Rs 6.5 Cr in favour of HG/CD/SDRF for modernizing the force by providing different kinds of equipments like drones, remote controlled Lifebuoy, Fire entry suits, Power Descenders, and Battery operated cutter cum spreaders.
The other agenda items which were discussed in this SEC and find takers for their approval includes provisioning of Rs 50 lakhs on account of SDRF capacity building by conducting training programs, mock drills, other preparedness activities during the ensuing financial year. It also decided in favour of giving Rs 30 lakhs to the Department for upgradation of Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) here in J&K.
The Chief Secretary took this occasion to enquire from Deputy Commissioners about the disaster preparedness in their districts. He also took note of the suggestions forwarded by them. The Principal Secretary, DMRR&R Department, Chandraker Bharti gave out details of the activities held by department during the year. He also highlighted the significance of each agenda item for augmenting the capacity of the UT to be better prepared against the disasters the region is prone to.
