Mangalore, November 5: Even though umpteen measures may be taken to prepare for emergencies, credit or criticism will be solely measured depending on the response system, said Inspector General of Police (Western Range) C H Pratap Reddy.
Delivering the inaugural address of a training programme on Incident Response System conducted by the National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi, in association with Dakshina Kannada district administration, here on Monday, he said that the success of any disaster management was measured by how the units of government and civic bodies responded to a disaster, post incident.
“However well we may be prepared in the background of natural calamities or manmade disasters, there will always be scope for improvement, as the response mechanism changes and expectations of people grow. Leadership during the time of disasters has to be taken by the mid-level officers. Mangalore being a petrol and chemical zone, it is necessary to conduct such workshops to make us prepared for disasters,” he said.
He said that the Hurricane Katrina, which was a landmark in disasters, showed us how prepared the world was to handle disasters. It led the US to review its response system, and subsequently led to the formation of a new umbrella unit made by the department of homeland security, he said.
Speaking on dealing with non-calamities such as prevention of cow slaughter and illegal transportation of cattle, he said that in such situations, police stations ended up as cattle sheds, as there was no provision to ensure that the corresponding departments had available measures to maintain cattle.
James Payne, a member of United States South-West Incident team, who was present on the occasion, said that it was important for India to have training in incident response.
Mayor of Mangalore Gulzar Banu presided over the programme. Additional Deputy Commissioner K. Dayanand and MCC Commissioner Dr K Harish Kumar were present.
Mangalore Assistant Commissioner M V Venkatesh welcomed the gathering, while K J Nanjappa proposed a vote of thanks.
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