Disaster Management dept calendar to feature photo of young ham

Kolkata: The achievements of a young ham in the field of disaster management has received the acknowledgment of the state Disaster Management & Civil Defence department. A page of the calendar of the department this year comes with the picture of young ham Saborni Nag Biswas, who is one of the youngest amateur radio enthusiasts in the country.

Saborni has been a regular in the Gangasagar Mela for the last few years, working with a team of ham radio operators in close coordination with the state Disaster Management department and the district administration. This will be her fourth appearance in the mela.

She was instrumental in uniting a couple from Uttar Pradesh at the mela two years ago, when the husband-wife duo had been estranged from each other. The helpless woman had sought help from young Saborni and with the assistance of her ham team, she managed to trace her husband in 48 hours. "A year back, the couple visited our residence at Sodepur. It was a great honour for me," said Saborni.

Ambarish Nag Biswas, Saborni's father, has been her inspiration. He had worked in natural calamities - like the earthquake in Nepal and the Hudhud cyclone in Andhra Pradesh in 2014.

"Uniting missing persons with their families has been one of our priorities during disasters and it has received a boost with the launch of our website myham.in, which will be in operation during Gangasagar Mela that starts from Tuesday," Nag Biswas said.

It may be mentioned that Saborni had received the certificate for operating an amateur radio station in the year 2012, when she was only twelve-years-old. She had successfully cracked the examination of the union telecommunication ministry to get the license of a ham.

The calendar also comes with a series of precautionary measures like listening to weather forecasts in television or radio on a daily basis to get alerts for natural calamities and not to panic or spark rumours associated with it. It also mentions the toll free number 1070, which can be dialled during natural calamities.