Arunachal releases Rs 2 crore to Tawang district as relief

Arunachal Pradesh government today released Rs 2 crore to Tawang district for relief and restoration work including ex-gratia payment to the next of kin of the deceased who died in landslides in the border district.
The government also released a relief fund of Rs 1 crore each to the flood-affected districts of Namsai, Lower, Subansiri, Changlang and Anjaw besides additional relief fund of Rs 30 lakh to all the DCs and Rs 10 lakh to all the ADC headquarters, an official report said here.
Chief Minister Kalikho Pul accompanied by in charge chief secretary Hage Khoda, disaster management commissioner Hage Kojeen and disaster management director Y W Ringu made an unsuccessful attempt to visit Tawang district yesterday despite bad weather.

The team had to return back to Guwahati Airport due to inclement weather as packed cloud over the Bhutan Valley en-route to Tawang had blurred visibility and deterred further movement of the helicopter, the report said.
Pul said that occurrence of landslides and flash flood in the state is predominant as the state is situated in a seismically high risk zone frequented with heavy rainfall.
"Presence of hilly terrains, steep slopes, loose and sandy soil and presence of multiple rivers, rivulets and small streams make our state more prone to such natural calamities," he said.

He called upon the people to learn a lesson from recent incidents of landslides at Tawang that caused loss of 18 lives and the water logging at Hotel PYBSS at Itanagar that blocked the National Highway 415 for several days due to obstruction of natural flow of drain water by randomly built houses at drains/nallahs, bypassing building laws in the state.

"If the faults are not corrected in time and precautions are not taken, such high rise buildings are in danger and may collapse anytime risking lives of many people," he pointed out.
The Chief Minister appealed to the people to take precautionary measures and to always remain prepared.
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Citing that the system is already in place, Pul called upon the people to abide by the system as it is often felt that the people neglect government instructions and later put the blame on the government and the authorities.
He asked the people to maintain the building bye-laws of Ground plus 3 in whole of the state and to construct earth quake resistant buildings.

He also requested the people to avoid construction over drain, river valleys and rivulets, run off way, low lying and flood prone areas besides avoiding random earth cutting and quarrying in order to thwart repetitions of such incidents in future.
The chief minister gave instructions to all the DCs to conduct intensive awareness generation activities involving all stakeholders on Do's and Don'ts on earthquake, fire and other disasters.
"The government has given instructions to all the district administration to ensure that all the schools and hospitals (both govt and private) and all the offices in the districts to have their Disaster Management Plan, Standard Operating Plans (SOPs) and Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) in place.

It was also instructed to conduct mock drill at least once in a month on earthquake, fire safety and other disasters in schools, hospitals and other public places," the report said.
The district administrations were asked to identify safe locations/evacuation routes/open grounds for emergency operations for setting up of relief camps in case of any disaster like earthquake, fire, floods, high speed winds etc. and also to keep ready, search and rescue teams.
The government also instructed the authorities to keep the Incident Response System (IRS) and Incident Response Teams (IRT) in place.
They were asked to put up all systems in place and to depute men and machinery for dealing with any disaster like situation.

The district heads were also asked to ensure immediate rescue, evacuation, relief assistance, etc in case of any eventuality as per the relief norms.
It was further instructed there should not be delay in response to relief operations at any level and also to ensure proper reporting as per the govt norms.
It was further instructed to plan development activities in such manner which are disaster friendly and disaster resilient, the report added.