'Define role of individual during natural havoc in advance'

She was speaking after inugurating a workshop on disaster management organised by the Administrative Training Institute and Centre for Disaster Management at Zilla Panchayat office here on Tuesday. “Role and responsibilities of each individual during the natural havoc should be well defined in advance. It is also important that skill and capacity should be developed for effective mitigation of risks due to natural and man made disasters,” she added.

“North Karnataka people might not have expected the recent devastating floods that washed away majority of their belongings. We have to be prepared to face any such circumstances,” she said adding that a district-level committee is set up in that direction.
“This sort of training equipping officials to deal with the unexpected disasters will be more beneficial. If not we will not be able to perform better,” she said.

Speaking on the occasion, Zilla Panchayat CEO Prasanna Kumar said every individual should be prepared for unfortunate happenings.

Most of the times, the disaster management strategies will be failure owing to improper execution of the specified plans, he said.

“On one side we speak of perfection when it comes to technology. On the other, we remain helpless before the astonishing natural disasters. Mechanisms of the administrative measures should be designed in advance,” he added.

“Mobilising local community for disaster management with emphasis of local governance interventions,” “Preparing the community to meet climate changes challenges,” “Coastal erosion and its control measures,” “District disaster management plan,” “Urban flood with special reference to water logging,” “Fire safety measures, demonstration and mock drill” are some of the issues which will be debated in the three-days’ workshop.

Zilla Panchayat Assistant Secretary Pranesh and ATI Faculty Dr G Vishwanath was present.