Dutta at the meet. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 17: The state disaster management authority looks committed to clear all loopholes in its mechanism to fight disasters.

The authority today held a meet presided by V.K. Dutta, a senior specialist of National Disaster Management Authority. Anil Kumar Sinha, deputy chairman of Bihar State Disaster Management Authority, K.P. Rammaiah, the commissioner of Patna, P.N. Roy, additional director-general of Bihar police, Shiv Chandra Jha, member of state disaster management authority and Bala Sinha of Bihar Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development were also present at the exercise.

Dutta touched upon various aspects of disaster management and briefed the persons present on how to act at the time of a disaster and the preparedness of people involved in disaster management. Search and rescue operations, medical resources and functioning of control rooms were also points of discussion.

He said: “The preparedness of the state and central government in tackling disasters needs to be checked out and Bihar cannot be ignored as it falls in the seismic zone of 4-5. No one knows what the next moment holds as disasters don’t come with prior warning. Disasters can be of various kinds — floods and earthquakes. But I think earthquakes are more dangerous than floods. During floods, people do get prior warning and they can move to safer zones but that is never the case with earthquakes. Earthquakes are more prone to affect lives and resources.

“Communication is totally disrupted by earthquakes — the roads, tunnels, telephone towers are all damaged. Contacting somebody becomes tough. Disaster management authorities — at the state or national level — have to ensure providing every possible resource necessary to combat such situations,” Dutta said.

He also emphasised on the need to give clearance to buildings according to the disaster guidelines and identifying buildings, which have not followed the norms. Alternative facilities like arranging hospitals and services like providing tents at the district and state level, quantity of resources available with the army should also be ensured, said Dutta.