Bhubaneswar, July 20: The municipal corporation is training youths to raise a group of volunteers, who would conduct search, rescue and first aid activities in the event of a disaster striking the city or its environs.
Sources in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation said that more than 100 volunteers had been trained in the past one month. Two more such training programmes would be conducted by July 23 at Unit-VIII.
"Our target is to train at least 200 volunteers from various wards, so that they can be available during emergency situations. It would help our cause if more volunteers joined the training programme," said public relations officer of the civic body Srimanta Mishra.
A corporation official said they wanted at least five persons from each ward to be brought under this training programme being conducted with funds from the United Nations Development programme. The corporation has 67 wards.
By having such volunteers at the ward level, the authorities aim to address the problems faced by residents in case of any disaster instantaneously before the official rescue and search parties arrive.
The Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority conducts the training programmes. The volunteers are provided with training that involves search, rescue, first aid, relief and co-ordination, debris and shelter management. The more important aspect of the training is to provide these volunteers with knowledge about psychological management, in which they have to psychologically counsel the traumatised victims.
They will act and put their training to use during flood, cyclone, earthquake, building-collapse, fire and gas, chemical or other disaster that a city might face. The contact numbers of these volunteers would be placed in public domain, so that the common people can seek their help in times of need.
The official said these volunteers would be connected to the modern police control room, so that at the time of disaster, the corporation officials could easily contact them. A deputy commissioner-ranked officer is in charge of the emergency service of the corporation, and these people would report to him. Besides, several community organisers have been chosen to pick up these volunteers from various wards.
The civic body officials held a meeting on July 3 to finalise the incidence response team, standard operating procedure and emergency support function for management of any extreme event in Bhubaneswar in a co-ordinated way among various stakeholders. Officers of 14 departments had taken part in the consultation meeting.
