Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 2: In order to strengthen the State Disaster Management, the proposal of establishment of four Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs) in four districts was given nod nearly five years ago, but till date not even a single centre has come up on the ground.
The State Disaster Management Plan envisages establishment of EOCs in each district for quick response and effective decision-making during emergencies. "Though the State Executive Committee (SEC) earmarked Rs 2 crore in 2013-14 for establishment of four EOCs in the districts of Jammu, Srinagar, Leh and Kargil in the first phase, nothing has been done till date," sources said.
Despite the fact that immediate first response to any disaster has to be from the district administration and for that it is necessary to ensure that district EOCs should be constructed with state of the art emergency communication equipment to communicate with State EOC as well as other local level functionaries, sources informed.
They said that the minimum facilities required in an EOC included chamber for district Collector, Small meeting room (with video-conferencing facilities), Communication Room (with TV, Radio, Wireless, Telephone and other communication equipment), Workstations for line departments (with 2 or 3 local phone facilities), Visitor's Room/Waiting Room, Store Room, Pantry, Rest Room/Retire Room (with toilet) for 2 people and General toilets. They said that in the first phase, the districts with high risk areas were decided to be taken up for establishment of EOCs. Moreover, the district EOCs had to be made more resilient than the State EOC as it will be the first principal responder in the case of a major local emergency. |
