THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city Corporation has passed a bylaw for disaster management in accordance with the Disaster Management Act 2005 during the council meet held on Wednesday. The civic body has recently constituted a working group for disaster management as per the guidelines of the state government for preparation of the annual plan document for 2019-20.
All malls, schools and other buildings should have a proper disaster management plan. It aims to establish a wide network of agencies like district disaster management authority, Fire and Rescue Services, etc. The bylaw lays down special requirements for hospitals. All hospitals should have a disaster management plan and business continuity plan.
The maintenance of drains, periodic cleaning, measures to check vector-borne diseases, periodic trimming and cutting of trees posing a danger to the public and maintenance of temporary shelters in the event of any disaster are included in the bylaw. Sanitation workers shall be trained to conduct a trial run of disaster management equipment, it says.
The bylaw provides for the constitution of a three-level disaster management team in the city. The first level comprises city disaster management cell – a 19-member team with the Mayor as chairperson and members representing the corporation and district administration. The city crisis management team forms the second level – a five-member team headed by the corporation additional secretary. The city response team will constitute the third level, comprising corporation officials trained in disaster management and mitigation.
Even though Mayor V K Prasanth has passed the bylaw he has also added if any revision is required, it can be raised in the next council meet and changes will be made accordingly. The council saw a heated argument in the agenda of issuing of funds to the flood-affected victims. Councillors raised the issue that many beneficiaries in their ward have not yet received the flood relief amount of Rs 10,000.
“Instead of transferring the amount to the LDF’s account, the Mayor should make sure the beneficiaries get the intended amount,” said Anil Kumar, BJP councillor.“The flood relief amount of Rs 10,000 has been distributed o around 1,561 beneficiaries within the Corporation limit. The Corporation will make sure only the beneficiaries get this amount,” said the Mayor.
According to the government’s current year budget assigned to the local body as part of its 13th five-year plan, it was directed to keep aside 20 per cent of the development fund for LIFE and PMAY mission. BJP councillor M R Gopan said if this was implemented it might affect the development projects in each ward.
In response, the Mayor said no individual ward project will be affected due to this as the fund will not be reduced from the development fund and the Corporation will take care of paying the 20 per cent amount from local body’s other expenses.
The bylaw provides for the constitution of a three-level disaster management team in the city.
The first level comprises city disaster management cell – a 19-member team with the Mayor as chairperson and members representing the corporation and district administration.