With rescue operations during the Beas tragedy exposing the shortcomings in the response teams, the Himachal Pradesh Government on Friday decided to set up its own professional State Disaster Response Force (SDRF).
Presiding over a high level meeting, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said, "The SDRF would be made capable of handling any adverse situation.
Water released from a dam (largi) had caused a sudden rise of water levels at about 6.30 pm in Beas river on June 8, which had washed away 24 engineering students, who had stepped onto boulders near Thalot village for clicking photographs. Not enough trained manpower nor any night time rescue abilities had hindered rescue operations that only got started in the morning.
"To begin with, 300 jawans would be given operational level training right from disaster response, prevention, mitigation and capacity building. Equipments required to be used during disasters would be made available at Tehsil level," said a government spokesman.
Raising concern over the Thalot incident, the Chief Minister directed that bilingual hoardings with warnings be put up to warn locals and tourists from venturing out into rivers and other dangerous areas.
Virbhadra Singh stressed upon installing modern warning systems, which included using GPRS for establishing location of any mishap or disaster so that rescue and relief operations could be carried out at short notice.