Call to be ready for disasters

Three-day conference on disaster management gets underway

FICCI assistant secretary general Nirankar Saxena (left), Commissioner Labour, Employment Training and Factories Ahmed Nadeem, chairman Chemical & Industrial Disaster Management Lt. Gen J. R. Bhardwaj and co-chairman Telangana State Council and chairman of TMI Group T Muralidharan (right) at the inauguration of the conference on Chemical and Industrial Disaster Management (CIDM) in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

A three-day conference on Chemical and Industrial Disaster Management (CIDM) began in the city on Wednesday to lay stress on the need to improve preparedness for handling accidents.

“The Bhopal gas tragedy is long behind us but we cannot forget it. Now, we have very few accidents and we are better able to cope with them,” Commissioner Industries Ahmed Nadeem said.

Better management

“We have to ensure that we are prepared for challenges of chemical and disasters. Their management requires further improvements to templates that may be existing. We cannot let even small tragedies take place because human life is more important than wealth. We want good ideas and better kind of management,” said Mr. Nadeem.

On the third day of the conference, an onsite drill at Cherlapally industrial area is scheduled to take place for the benefit of delegates drawn from various industries and safety organisations.

JR Bhardwaj of Chemical and Industrial Disaster Management said the conference is to build capacities is to build capacities. National guidelines for disaster management were released in 2007. They remained on paper and its implementation has remained a challenge. Prevention, preparedness, mitigation and quick response are the focus of this conference,” said Mr. Bhardwaj.