Draw TN-specific disaster modules to tide over paltry Central help: Chief Secretary

The Chief Secretary, who inaugurated a seminar on cyclones and disaster management here on Friday, admitted that the Central assistance and funds provided by the Union government for TN flood reliefs and cyclones as part of disaster relief were inadequate. But the state has the responsibility of handling the mitigation, Shanmugham said.

Admitting that the recent cyclones particularly Gaja and Ockhi had taught lessons, Shanmugham emphasised that the state had specialised in disaster management and has effectively handled the recent cyclones. Ockhi was too fast for us to reach to our fishermen leading to casualties. But the state geared up in case of Gaja, due to the safety and preventive measures taken up the revenue administration there was no much mortality. We were not able to save the loss of greenery and livelihood, but still it is a learning curve and the state is progressing well on disaster management, Shanmugham said.

At present, the state is also focussing on desilting of water bodies and this will help in fighting floods and increase water catchment capacity, the Chief Secretary added.

Commissioner of revenue administration and disaster management K Satyagopal said that in the past three years a sum of Rs 1,000 crore had been spent on disaster management and relief. As part of capacity building a Rs 78 crore has been spent to procure modern equipment and machinery. Due to the planning and preventive measures the impact of disasters can be reduced by 70 per cent.

Officials from state and national disaster management authority, municipal administration, revenue, Chennai Corporation and experts in disaster management from Australia, Nepal, Singapore and Bangladesh took part in the seminar. As part of the event, the authorities have also planned a tsunami mock drill along the Chennai coast on Saturday.