Disaster response force in most vulnerable Assam ill equipped, short staffed: CAG

GUWAHATI: The state disaster response force in Assam, the country's most vulnerable state, has been found to be critically short of both equipment and physically fit manpower by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The CAG in its audit (the report tabled in assembly) has found that has alerted the state government to equip its state disaster response force (SDRF) with men and machinery on a priority if it wants to prevent untoward incident in the eventuality of a disaster..
The CAG said, “The shortage of essential equipment required during rescue operations could be life threat for the operational staff in the event of any disaster taking place.”
The report has pointed out that the state has a shortfall of 752 SDRF personnel as on March 2017, which is a shortage of 74% of the actual requirement.
The CAG report said that the Assam State Disaster Management Authority has categorized the state as highly flood and earthquake prone zone and yet 14 of the 33 districts do not have any SRDF personnel. “Further, the SDRF personnel deployed were not equipped with adequate rescue equipment like rescue tenders, floating pumps etc,” the CAG stated.
Against the norms for having force that has high degree of physical efficiency to handle difficult situations, the CAG has found that nearly 19 per cent of total firemen in fire and emergency service, which constitutes the SDRF, have crossed the upper age limit of 45 years and the department has not conducted any physical assessment test of its personnel in between 2012 and 2017, putting the disaster fighting men at high risk.
The CAG stated that the deficiencies have been noticed at all levels—from the planning stage to the final fire-fighting operations.
The norms say that there has to be one ambulance with two stretchers and normal first aid equipment and oxygen resuscitator in each city, division and command headquarters but CAG did not find a single ambulance in the entire department.
“The entire state has only two hydraulic platforms (Dispur and Panbazar fire stations), the CAG reported. Id added, “There are only 121 fire entry suits, 170 breathing apparatuses, 37 smoke exhausters, 57 proximity suits and 710 life jackets for a total of 2280 operational staff,” the report said. But, the department does not a single have jumping cushion or visibility test equipment.