State chief secretary, Pankaj Kumar, has asserted the need to be better prepared for any natural calamities and disasters as Nagaland was considered to one of the vulnerable states.
He was speaking at the two-day capacity building programme for Nagaland Emergency Preparedness Exercise (NEPEx) organised by Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) at ATI, Kohima on Tuesday. The training would culminate on August 23.
A press note by NSDMA media cell stated that Pankaj Kumar while delivering the key note address said that NEPEx was required to review capacity to respond in the event of a natural disaster to minimize loss of life.
He stated that Nagaland was vulnerable to a variety of natural calamities and disasters such as earthquakes, cloudburst and flashfloods (Meluri in 2015 and Dimapur 2017), lightning, hailstorms and forest fires.
Highlighting the guidelines laid down for the Incident Response System (IRS) brought out by the NSDMA, Pankaj called upon all the AHoDs/HoDs to help prepare better by putting the state through a stimulated exercise for which a mega mock drill was planned on August 30.
The first day of the capacity building exercise went through the various branches of the IRS and the speakers included OSD, NSDMA Johnny Ruangei, deputy director ATI Dr. Hovithal Sothu, additional director CD & HG, Medozhalie Peinyu, Dy.Co.General HG, Benjamin Longkap, SDO, Meluri and DC Mkg Sushil Kumar.
The programme chaired by DG Prison, HG&CD, Rupin Sharma began with a brief introduction to NEPEx by OSD NSDMA, Johnny Ruangmei and was attended by AHoDs and HoDs both at the state and district level.