The Governing Body of the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) met under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra on Saturday to discuss long and medium-term measures for prevention, mitigation, preparedness, relief and rehabilitation to combat natural and human-induced calamities. Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue & Disaster Management Dr Taradatt outlined the issues for discussion.
As per the earlier decisions, a State Disaster Management Plan (SDMP) has been prepared with inputs from 22 departments dealing with rescue, relief and rehabilitation issues. The plans of various departments include the details of arrangement.
A Standard of Procedures (SOP) of different actions has also been worked out. A booklet containing the entire plan has been published by the OSDMA. The contents of the plan have also been uploaded in OSDMA website for information of all stakeholders. The Chief Secretary directed the departments to keep updating and refining their response plans regularly with changing requirements.
The National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) is being implemented in six coastal districts, Baleswar, Bhadrak, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada and Puri, with a financial outlay of Rs653.79 crore including both Central and State shares. The major components of the fund include setting up early warning dissemination system, construction of multipurpose cyclone shelters and godowns, connecting roads to shelters raising and strengthening of saline embankment and technical assistance for capacity building.
The Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP) is under implementation in two stretches of the coast, Gopalpur to Chilika and Paradip to Dhamra. In this project, the OSDMA has been entrusted with construction of 14 cyclone shelters with a plan outlay of Rs13.58 crore. Meanwhile, five shelters have already been completed and six are in the finishing stage.