Patna, June 25: The Bihar government, aiming to create awareness on various disasters among the masses, has introduced disaster management as a subject in the school syllabus to prepare the children to deal with any kind of disaster-related incidents.

Referring to a huge loss of human lives and infrastructural damage in Japan, Chile and other countries caused by natural disasters recently, chief minister Nitish Kumar said: “It has been imperative on the part of the state government to educate and make the people aware to mitigate the risks of disaster-related incidents in the event of any natural disaster and for this, disaster management as a subject has to be included as a subject in schools.”

“The disaster management department and the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority would have to take the job of mass awareness programme as a challenge,” Kumar said, while addressing the meeting of authority in the conference hall of the chief minister’s secretariat.

Disaster management department minister Renu Kushwaha, the authority’s vice-chairman Anil Kumar Sinha, chief secretary Anup Mukherjee, development commissioner K.C. Saha, industries department principal secretary C K Mishra and a host of principal secretaries of various departments were present during the meeting.