Bhubaneswar, Oct 29 (PTI) Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik today said Odisha has come a long way since the 1999super cyclone and has now become a model state in disasterpreparedness and risk mitigation.
Patnaik said the state government plans to takeconcrete steps to tackle natural disasters with focus onstrengthening early warning mechanism and school safety.
Odisha, which was once known for its mismanagement ofnatural disasters, was now setting global benchmarks indisaster management, he said.
"Odisha has become a model state in disasterpreparedness and risk mitigation," Patnaik said.
"School Safety Policy of 2016 as designed by NDMA(National Disaster Management Authority) will be implementedby School and Mass Education Department soon," he said at afunction on the occasion of Disaster Preparedness Day andNational Day for Disaster Reduction here.
He said the government has also planned to integrateyouth power for disaster management and volunteers of NCC andNSS of colleges have been trained on disaster management skillby Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA).
"Early Warning to Save Lives" has been chosen as thisyear's theme, he said, adding the state government has ensuredadequate planning, preparedness and capacity buildingto minimise human casualty during any disaster.
So far, we have constructed 879 multipurpose cycloneand flood shelters and 17,000 Odisha Disaster RecoveryProject (ODRP) houses for Phailin affected people of Ganjamand Khurda district, Patnaik said.
Similarly, 571 houses have been built at Bagapatia toresettle sea inundation affected people of Satabhaya inKendrapara district and 5 special godowns, and 12 salineembankments in disaster prone areas, he said.
In our effort to strengthen participatory approach,the ownership and management of all shelters have been handedover to local management committees and task forces, formed atthe shelter level, said Patnaik.
Speaking on the occasion, OSDMA managing director, P KMohapatra said disaster management would be included in schoolcurriculum from next academic session in the state as per theguidelines of NDMA.
The focus would be on imparting life saving skilltraining to children at school levels and new syllabus ondisaster management would be included in curriculum, he said.
Mohapatra said Odisha will be the first state in thecountry to have Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) soonfor six coastal districts which are prone to such naturaldisasters like cyclone.
The Chief Minister, who went round an exhibitiondisplaying various preparedness mechanism, also switched on aDemonstration Tower Siren as part of the EWDS mechanism, whichseeks to warn people in a disaster like situation to move tosafe places. He also watched demonstration of cycleambulances. PTI SKNRG.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.
