Man-made disasters are going to be more dangerous than natural disasters, warns Patil

Chandigarh, January 14, 2015: In a view of the present geo strategic and geo economic environment, global terrorism and challenges to environmental and Disaster Management in the country, Punjab Technical University, in keeping with its societal responsibility has taken a path breaking initiative by organising a seminar on “Challenges of Emerging Threats and Structure of Disaster Management”.

The seminar was held in CII Auditorium, in which, his Excellency, Shivraj V Patil , Governor Punjab and Administrator of Union Territory of Chandigarh; the Founder Artichect of the concept of Disaster Management in India, inaugurated the seminar as a Chief Guest and also delivered the Presidential Address.

Madan Mohan Mittal, Minister of Technical Education and Industrial Training, Govt. of Punjab presided over the function. General N. C. Vij PVSM, UYSM, AVSM former Chief of the Army Staff and Founder Vice Chairman of Disaster Management Authority has been the key note speaker. Dr Muzaffar Ahmed Member NDMA and Prof NVC Menon Founder Member NDMA also addressed the seminar.

A number of eminent citizens, academicians, media representatives, corporate and industry representatives, student community, Government officials, NGOs participated in the seminar.

In his welcome address, Dr. Rajneesh Arora, Vice-Chancellor PTU said, “In this seminar, the emphasis is laid on leadership, community participation and technological innovations. The University has taken this path-breaking initiative as a springboard to create a “Centre of Excellence for Environmental Protection and Disaster Management”; to provide a common platform amongst the scientific community, academia, industrial and corporate organisations and practitioners as also to train the leadership of various stakeholders, to contend with the emerging threats.”

He further added, “Vision of the centre is to achieve “excellence through innovation and action” with a mission, to be a leading Centre of Learning and Education on Environmental Studies and Disaster Management in the country. We intend to explore frontier technologies to initiate research to synthesize technology with traditional best practices for cost effective and implementable solutions for Environmental and Disaster Management.”

This is for the first time that as a part of the seminar a scenario of ‘Dirty Bomb Explosion’ has been depicted in which, apart from the NDRF, UT Disaster Management Authority also got  involved on the real time basis with full complement of local police, civil defence, home guards and the medical services, a first in the country.

Shivraj V Patil, Governor of Punjab, while addressing the participants focused on the need of effective machinery and manpower. He shared, “The foremost problem lies is within our working conditions. We use to take measures after any disaster occurs. What needs to be done is proper ‘prior’ planning so that when such disasters arrives, these could be dealt effectively, thus saving the lives and properties. If you read Disaster Management Act 2005 carefully, then you will be able to get a lot many solutions that could be put into practical use. The team of disaster management is always ready to stand tall while any happening occurs but the ground problem is lack of adequate manpower as well as effective machinery. Other solution could be all the disaster prone areas must be equipped well before, with all the equipments to be used in saving lives and to cope up with such natural calamities.”

Man-made disasters are going to be more dangerous than natural disasters, warns Patil. He adds, “You cannot imagine when any terrorist will try to explode everything with the dangerous radiating materials. Natural disasters are quite common but now, man-made disasters shall also be tackled with equal concentration. University has to study in detail, keeping in the wide view of the scenario so that the graph of natural as well as man-made disasters could decline. District Management Authority is created to develop effective policies and plans in order to anticipate and provide facilities to deal with these disasters.”

Madan Mohan Mittal, Minister Technical Education and Industrial Training also stressed on the measures to be taken and a proper planning before any calamity happens needs to be stressed upon. He said, “Disaster Management is a wider topic. It does not only deal with earthquakes, cyclones etc. There is also a need of water as well as electricity management. Educational institutions can also play a vital role in providing intense practical training to the budding students who have interest in this field. I believe that the talks that took place in this seminar will be put into practical use in coming future.”

The keynote addresses on ‘National Vision, Policy, Profile of emerging threats and challenges’;  ‘Industrial and Corporate Challenges and Community Empowerment’; ‘Cyber Terrorism and Information Technology”  were delivered by General N. C. Vij, Prof. N. V. C. Menon and Dr. H. S. Shan, Advisor, PIT Mohali, respectively. The trio discussed about the challenges as well as measures of dealing with disasters.

The vote of thanks was delivered by Major Gen. R. K. Kaushal, SM, VSM (Retd.) Co-convener.

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