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Imphal, Feb 23: A National level Consultation on Fire Services-cum-Second Meeting of the High Level Empowered Committee for the scheme of strengthening of Fire & Emergency Services was inaugurated by Sh. Mullappally Ramachandran, Minister of State for Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India at, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala today. Shri A. E. Ahmad, Secretary (Border Management) MHA, Sh. K. Jayakumar, Addl. Chief Secretary, Home Department, Govt. of Kerala, Sh. R.K. Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Disaster Management), Sh. Mukul Goyal, IG(NDRF &Civil Defence), Sh. S.Pulikeshi, DGP, Commandant General, Kerala Fire Services, Dr. J.Radhakrishnan, Assistant Country Director, UNDP and Senior Government officials of various States/UTs attended the workshop.
Shri Mullapally Ramachandran, in his inaugural address highlighted the issue of increasing industrialisation and technological advancements making the country far more vulnerable to big fire incidences. Government of India is particularly concerned about the increasing loss of life and any property due to fire and related accidents. He indicated that the role of fire services has dramatically changed and now fire services respond to all emergent situations such as terrorist attacks, hazardous material incidents, advanced emergency medical situations, urban search & rescue and much more in addition to their conventional role to fire fighting and rescue.
Shri A.E.Ahmad, Secretary (Border Management) in his keynote address focused on need of systematic and comprehensive institutional setup for fire services in the country. He stated that recent hospital fire tragedy in Kolkata has given us warning call to take effective and better preparedness measures on priority basis. He further emphasised that there is a dire need to legislate on fire safety measure empower the district and state level fire services for not only carrying out search &rescue operations immediately after a disaster but also for fire prevention and making them self relevant on resource generation for fire-fighting equipments. He informed that for the first time, Fire Hazard & Risk Analysis for all the States/UTs is being conducted in the country, which will identify the gaps in existing fire services and evolving strategies for bridging the gap of fire in the area preparedness across the country. He exhorted the States to use funds made available under the 13th Finance Commission for modernisation of their fire services.
The deliberations during the meeting focussed on finding solutions for various challenges faced by states in developing fire services as multi-hazard disaster response units.
Shri. K. Jayakumar, Addl. Chief Secretary, Home Department, Govt. of Kerala, Sh. R.K. Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Disaster Management), Sh. Mukul Goyal, IG(NDRF &Civil Defence), Sh. S.Pulikeshi, DGP, Commandant General, Kerala Fire Services, Dr. J.Radhakrishnan, Assistant Country Director, UNDP and Senior Government officials of various States/UTs attended the workshop.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/national-consultation-on-fire-services-cum-meeting/
