Training for Darjeeling schools on disaster management

EOI, Darjeeling, 5 Nov 2014: The disaster management department of the West Bengal government has asked schools in Darjeeling to form a disaster management and rescue team to meet eventualities in case of earthquakes and landslides, which are frequent phenomena in the hill regions.

As part of the National School Safety Programme, the Darjeeling district administration’s disaster management department on Wednesday held a training programme for 32 schools in Darjeeling town area.

Talking about the programme, NSSP professional Priti Gurung said, “The NSSP was launched across the country in 2011 and focuses on disasters such as earthquakes and landslides. It prepares schools on how to tackle situations in such events.”

She added: “Today, we trained teachers of various schools of town and also gave them guidelines and made them aware about earthquakes and landslides. The teachers have been asked to form disaster management and rescue operation teams. We have also asked them to hold mock drills at their respective schools.”

The National School Safety Programme, which is a Central initiative, covers preparations of different kinds of disasters while giving special emphasis to earthquakes, as the hills are prone to this calamity.

“We will be giving schools 15 days to form a disaster management plan to the schools and it will have to be submitted to us,” said Gurung. “The programme was started in February in other parts of the district, but in Darjeeling sub-division, this is the first time,” said Asha Mukhia Lama, the Kurseong Disaster Management officer. “The government feels that places like shopping complexes, hospitals and schools are vulnerable in the event of natural disasters as the casualty rate is high. The government feels imparting training and making people aware is the best way to deal with such events.”

Lama said plans are on the anvil to conduct similar programmes in Sukhaypokhari, Takdah and Bijanbari in the coming days.