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| Govt. leaves `10 crore out of GOI sanctioned `12 crores unspent | | The fate of Disaster Management in JK | | Jammu, December 26: The inefficacy the successive regimes in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir is coming to the fore with details revealing how out of a whooping 12 crores released by the GOI, 10 crores remain utilised for Capacity Building and Public Awareness for Managing Disasters.
The official documents in possession of the Early Times reveal that the erstwhile State Government had not undertaken capacity building activities including public awareness and preparedness as envisaged in the Disaster Management Act and Rs10.21 crore out of Rs12 crore released by GoI remained unutilized. Further, Rs 25.24 lakh was utilized for procurement of vehicles during 2014-15 instead of capacity building.
Documents reveal that GoI allocated Rs20 crore for the purpose of building capacity such as procurement of equipment for rescue and relief, establishment of early warning system in the district headquarters, creation of public awareness for pre-disaster preparedness and for imparting training to various stakeholders. Of this, Rs12 crore was released by GoI. However, the State Government could utilize only Rs1.79 crore. Consequently, balance funds of Rs8 crore were not released by the GoI.
Furthermore, out of Rs6.02 crore released (June 2014) to the Revenue Department for pre-disaster management activities, Rs29 lakh was utilized as of March 2015 and balance amount of Rs5.73 crore was surrendered. Similarly, Rs32 lakh released through sanction to the Technical Education Department for skill upgradation of workers had not been utilized. “Rs25.24 lakh provided by GoI for ‘capacity building’ for disaster management was spent by the Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Department on procurement of vehicles during 2014-15 not covered under ‘capacity building,” the documents reveal.
It is being informed further that chapter on disaster management had been included in the academic curriculum by the State Board of School Education and certain initiatives had been taken such as conducting training programs on various aspects of disaster management and training of sarpanches, divisional level officers, engineers and volunteers, no steps were taken to increase public awareness about risk mitigation strategies; and Mock drills were not organized for any type of calamity/disaster to sensitize the relief machinery as preparedness measures were not reflected in the Annual Reports submitted to the GoI.
Pertinent to mention that the Disaster Management Act, 2005, envisages promoting general education, awareness and community training about disasters and building capacity to combat disasters as an important pre-disaster activity. Further, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) prescribed by GoI envisaged mock drills by search and rescue teams at State level to test their preparedness.
A senior official told Early Times that the government ahead of the catastrophic floods of the year 2014 had not taken requite measures to ensure Early Warning system is kept in place. As per the official, the Government of India had sanctioned an an amount of Rs 20 lakh to the state government for the installation of early warning systems. However, the entire amount was then surrendered by the state government with an excuse that it couldn’t spent the money.
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