The Indian Coast Guard has formulated certain guidelines to work in close coordination with the coastal districts as part of its disaster management programme, according to Commandant N.Somasundaram, Commanding Officer, Indian Coast Guard Station, Puducherry.
These guidelines, framed within the contours of National Disaster Management Act 2005 by the Indian Coast Guard headquarters in New Delhi, envisages taking pro-active measures such as sensitising the people to vulnerable areas on disaster response and assisting the civil administration in dealing with calamities.
As such, besides protecting maritime zones and other national interests in such zones, the Coast Guard also assumed the responsibility of participating in disaster management activity in a well-structured manner.
The Commandant, who came here on Tuesday to hand over the guidelines to Collector R.Kirlosh Kumar, told The Hindu that November and December happened to be critical months for Cuddalore district because with the district’s 54-km coastline had become susceptible to natural disasters that generally strike during north east monsoon.
Natural calamities caused extensive damage and claim many human lives. At that time, the Coast Guard would chip in by mobilising men and materials to take up relief and rehabilitation works in an orderly fashion. The vast experience gained by the Indian Coast Guard through field works carried out in the aftermath of the Odisha Super Cyclone in 1999, the Gujarat earthquake in 2001 and the tsunami in 2004, had equipped it to come out with these guidelines, he said.
