Sambalpur, Aug. 30: The Sambalpur district administration today organised a workshop on disaster management with an aim to spread awareness on how to deal with natural disasters.
Hundreds of people, students, and representatives of social organisations participated in the “Operational Familiarisation and Community Awareness Preparedness Programme”, which was organised at an auditorium here.
District emergency officer Nihar Dash, who coordinated the programme, said: “It is a training programme on how to deal with natural disasters. We had requested the National Disaster Response Force to conduct workshops throughout the district. Students, teachers, members of social organisations are government officials took part in the programme. Through this programme, they have been imparted knowledge on how to deal with natural disasters.”
“The workshop will help people know how to deal with disasters,” said Dash.
The National Disaster Response Force exhibited equipment that is used during floods, train accidents, fire and earthquakes. Assistant commandant of the force H.R. Koshal said: “We organised the awareness program in 12 places of Sambalpur district. Through these programmes, we want to send forth the message that we are fully prepared to deal with any kind of disaster.”
“The response has been encouraging. People were quite interested to know about the equipment exhibited at the workshop. The participants, especially the students, are very keen to know about the function of the equipment,” said K.K. Singh, a National Disaster Response Force jawan.
“This is really a nice initiative by the district administration. We came to know about the preparedness of the National Disaster Response Force. We learnt about the use of equipment that was displayed at the workshop,” said Rajat Sahu, a participant.
“The workshop will be very helpful for us. For the first time, I saw a rubberised outboat, which is used during floods to rescue people. The staff of the National Disaster Response Force explained the use of the boat and its mechanism,” said Bibhudutta, a student and participant.
