Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 01: The Jammu and Kashmir government had ironically deployed the staff personnel in the residences of political leaders, otherwise recruited as state disaster response force tasked to help people at the time of the occurrence of natural disasters in the erstwhile state.
As per the documents in possession of Early Times, the government in February 2012 established the State Disaster Response Force out of existing two battalions of Auxiliary Police. The mandate of the Force was deployment in disaster-like situations, search/ rescue operation in actual disasters and assistance to civil administration in relief and rehabilitation process.
However, as per the documents, no Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) had been prescribed for deployment of Force personnel. Against a sanctioned strength of 1,588, the actual strength of the Force was 1,142 of which only 358 personnel (31 per cent) were actually deployed in its units. The balance 69 per cent of its personnel, as per the documents, were utilized for purposes such as parade/quarter guard duties (243), attachment with Home Guard/Civil Defence units (76), various offices (244), attached to political leaders and serving/retired police officers as PSOs/orderlies (86) and with trade6 duties (36). The balance (99) were on leave/training.
Documents reveal that it was mandatory for Force personnel to undergo a basic re-orientation course followed by specialized courses. However, only 399 personnel were imparted training on orientation course, 465 personnel were imparted training on disaster management courses and 237 on specialized courses during 2010-11 to 2014-15.
Documents also mention that specialists such as engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and medical/ paramedics were not available with the Force. "Thus, not only was the State Disaster Response Force significantly short of its sanctioned strength by 28 per cent, the bulk of the available manpower was neither fully trained nor deployed for disaster relief and rehabilitation thereby defeating the objective of creation of the Force," revealed the official documents.
The non- seriousness of the past governments towards the disaster management in Jammu and Kashmir was recently reported by the Early Times as it reported how the erstwhile State Government had not undertaken capacity building activities including public awareness and preparedness as envisaged in the Disaster Management Act and Rs10.21 crore out of Rs12 crore released by GoI remained unutilized. Further, Rs 25.24 lakh was utilized for procurement of vehicles during 2014-15 instead of capacity building.
Documents reveal that GoI allocated Rs20 crore for the purpose of building capacity such as procurement of equipment for rescue and relief, establishment of early warning system in the district headquarters, creation of public awareness for pre-disaster preparedness and for imparting training to various stakeholders. Of this, Rs12 crore was released by GoI. However, the State Government could utilize only Rs1.79 crore. Consequently, balance funds of Rs8 crore were not released by the GoI. |
