- IPS Officers call on Governor

Disaster management must focus on rescue:
By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Nainital; 11 June: 28 Senior IPS officers from 28 states, who are presently undergoing special training on disaster management at ATI, Nainital, today called on Governor Margaret Alva at the Raj Bhawan here today. Alva addressed the officers, who had come here for one-week training at length in disaster management, said that in times of disaster it was essential to focus on saving human lives that required quick decisions and corresponding action.
Talking about landslides and earthquakes that were especially relevant in the context of Uttarakhand, the Governor said that during such disasters, it was very difficult for aid and assistance to reach the hill regions. She acknowledged the role of Red Cross in times of such disasters and shared that Red Cross had formed the Rural Disaster Assistance Centre here.
Alva also shared that crowd control was a big problem in times of disasters, especially in urban areas and asked the officers about disaster management and crowd control in their respective states. She cited examples of past experiences in disaster relief and asked for the officers’ opinions on the same.
The group that met the Governor today includes twenty IG-ranked officers, five DIG-ranked officers, two DCP-ranked officers, three AIG, three commandants, three SPs and two A.S.P-ranked officers.
The state-wise allocation is as follows: two from Andhra Pradesh, one from Bihar, two from Chandigarh, one from Chhattisgarh, two from Gujrat, two from Haryana, two from Jammu and Kashmir, one from Karnataka, one from Madhya Pradesh, one from Maharashtra, one from Punjab, two from Rajasthan, one from Sikkim, two from Tamil Nadu, two from UP and three from West Bengal. The group was accompanied by ATI’s joint director PS Kutiyal, course director, JC Dhaundhiyal and course-coordinator Dr. Om Prakash, besides Governor’s Secretary Ashok Pai, Governor’s assistant Major Choudhary and Neeru Garg and others.