The government is thinking of constituting trained and equipped search and rescue (SAR) teams of security personnel to deal with natural disasters in the country.
One medium SAR team comprising 50-60 personnel each from the Armed Police Force (APF) and the Nepal Army (NA) and around 10 light SAR teams of 10-12 personnel from the Nepal Police (NP) are proposed to be formed under the National Disaster Response Framework. The Disaster Response Division under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) has prepared the framework. The ministry is the focal national institution to coordinate, formulate policies and programmes to deal with various kinds of natural disasters. According to the category of SAR teams, heavy includes those teams with highly sophisticated equipment like helicopters and bulldozers and well-trained human resources who can be mostly found in mega cities like New York. The medium and light teams are common and responsible to carry normal activities during any disaster.
According to Laxmi Dhakal, joint-secretary at the MoHA, considering the need of trained and equipped SAR teams to effectively fight natural disasters like flood, landslide, earthquake and fire, among others, the ministry came up with the proposal to form special security teams. The proposal is one of the components of a draft of National Disaster Response Framework (NDRF). At present the security personnel from all the three departments—NA, APF and NP—are involved in carrying out rescue and search operations in the country during natural disasters. “Though there are some security persons trained in disaster management, there are no separate units formed under the security bodies to specifically fight disasters,” he said.
Unlike the present situation, where a few individuals trained in disaster management are working from their respective units, the proposed framework aims at forming a separate battalion or company responsible for disaster preparedness only, said Dhakal.
The NDRF document will be discussed during the upcoming meeting of the Central Natural Disaster Relief Committee chaired by the PM on Friday.
Sunday 24 March 2013
http://ekantipur.com/2013/03/24/capital/separate-security-units-to-fight-natural-disasters/368929.html
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