Preparedness is important in mitigation of any disaster: Deputy CM Rajendra Shukla

Senior Correspondent

NewsBits.in

REWA: Preparedness, especially for health related matters, was stressed at a workshop on disaster risk and emergency health management (disaster management action plan) was organized at Shyam Shah Medical College, Rewa on December 7 with support of UNICEF.

Madhya Pradesh deputy chief minister Rajendra Shukla was the chief guest at the inauguration programme of the workshop.

Anil Gulati, Officer in Charge and Disaster Risk Reduction Focal, UNICEF Madhya Pradesh gave detailed information about the objective of the workshop. He stressed that it is important that Rewa and other districts in Madhya Pradesh have health preparedness plans and strengthen disaster risk reduction.

He spoke about the need to have a common plan which integrates facility and community level disaster risk reduction planning

In his address, Deputy CM Rajendra Shukl, praised the work done by the government and public cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic period, which saved thousands of lives.

On this occasion, he shared his experiences of the previous disasters in Rewa district. He stressed on the importance of planning and preparedness in any disaster.

He praised the Medical College and UNICEF officials for organizing the first workshop focused on health preparedness which will enable districts to have health preparedness plans in place.

He said we need to be prepared and expressed confidence that through the workshop, more awareness will be spread among the administration and the general public.

Shukla also praised the framework of the Madhya Pradesh State Disaster Management Force and the work being done by them. 

Senior joint director and disaster risk reduction (DRR) Nodal, Public Health and Medical Education Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Dr Pragya Tiwari spoke about the State profile in terms of disaster and structure of the health which responds to any disaster.

She explained in detail about the challenges faced in disaster risk reduction and the importance of Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) portal in preventing the spread of infectious diseases.

Saurabh Singh, deputy director, Madhya Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority, spoke about the factors and prevention of flood, lightning, drought, earthquake, fire and man-made disaster.

He also informed that incident response teams have been established in all districts of Madhya Pradesh by August 2024 so that during disasters, coordination can be done from the state level to the tehsil level.

He also informed that a two-year budget has been provided to each District Disaster Management Authority so that year-round training sessions and mock drills on 6 different subjects will be conducted at the district level.

He also stressed on promoting the use of the disaster security portal of the Madhya Pradesh Government and the Damini app created to give advance warning of lightning incidents and creating medical first responders at the field level.

Chief Medical and Health Officer, Bhopal, Dr Prabhakar Tiwari shared information about the preparedness and response mechanism of health services during disasters. He also talked about some of the recent natural and man-made disasters and risk reduction to avoid them.

He also gave information about the Sendai framework of disaster management and gave detailed information about the importance of community based disaster management preparedness plans.

Dr Prashant Kumar, Health Specialist, UNICEF Madhya Pradesh along with Sandeep Thacker, DRR Consultant, UNICEF Madhya Pradesh took the participants through the formats which need to be filled for preparing the health preparedness plans for the district. 

Dr  Saurabh Saxena of UNICEF gave information on the upcoming framework for disaster management.

A total of 54 participants from Police Department, Home Guard, Women and Child Development Department, Collector's Office, Medical College, Health Department Rewa, Municipal Corporation, Tribal Department, SDRF were part of the workshop.

The vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Chakresh Jain, Associate Professor, Community Medicine Department and Medical College Nodal Officer for Disaster Management. Faculty and PG students of Community Medicine Department were also present in the workshop.