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Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria called for stronger coordination among disaster management agencies and greater involvement of local communities in disaster response.
He was addressing a disaster management workshop bringing together the concerned agencies from across North India. Kataria told reporters on the sidelines of the event here, "Today, for disaster relief, our states range from Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Himachal, and even Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana. All the agencies working on this are having a two-day workshop. They'll sit down and discuss what to do when a disaster strikes, even before it happens. If we get the word out properly, we can save a lot of people." He added the importance of training local people during the time of disaster, even before the response teams arrive. "Sometimes a disaster strikes. The local people should be trained so they can start helping out on their own before other agencies even arrive. Whether it's a national disaster, a state disaster, or a local one, it could even be an earthquake, a flood, a storm, a disease, or a famine; this team needs to figure out how to coordinate and respond effectively to all of these situations. That's what this symposium is for," the Punjab Governor said. "The government will also follow the steps we suggest, and they'll get the public involved too, so we can all work together," he added. In his address on stage at the workshop, Kataria said the administration, along with organisations, should be able to provide a warning beforehand, instead of waiting for something to happen. "An organisation, together with the administration, should let people know if a building is in such bad shape that it could collapse anytime during the rain. They should either evacuate people and bring it down before the rains start, or else what happens is, they always do the operation after an incident anyway. Instead of waiting for something to happen, we could give a warning beforehand. If we develop a system like that, we could save a lot of lives," the Governor said. He recalled the scale of voluntary support witnessed in Punjab during past crises. "I saw this for the first time here in Punjab. The langars were open 24 hours a day, and we had no idea who was sending the supplies. When they asked for medicines, we sent medicines. When they needed tarps, we sent tarps. When they needed a bed, we sent a bed. It just shows that people have a natural urge to help out during tough times like this," Kataria said. He also flagged concerns over unregulated construction in flood-prone areas, stating, "It's become even harder to prevent property loss these days because all the illegal construction has been done in places that were already prone to flooding. You probably saw what happened in Himachal and Uttarakhand; entire 100-room hotels just collapsed. The wrongs we've done to nature, nature always finds a way to get back at us someday." Calling for accountability within the response system, Kataria said, "Until we stop sugarcoating things for everyone, we'll never see any real improvement. Where necessary, there will be strictness, and where there's cooperation, we'll talk things through kindly. Only then will the administration actually step up and do its job. Our priority should be figuring out how to alert and inform people using our information system during a disaster. I feel we can save a lot of lives." Concluding his address, Kataria said, "Whatever we're doing to save people, it's not a favour; it's our duty. I request you to sit down for two days and discuss this topic, and figure out how everyone can get involved." (ANI)
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