Disaster Management dept to give satellite phones to district authorities

Kolkata: The state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department has decided to give satellite phones to district authorities, to ensure uninterrupted communication even during natural calamities and other emergency situations.

According to a senior official of the state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department, it has often been found that mobile phones lose network connection when there is a natural calamity.

In a bid to ensure that inter-district communication and communication with the state government headquarters stay uninterrupted at the time of an emergency, the district authorities will be provided with satellite phones.

Sources said that initially,

16 satellite phones will be distributed among the districts and gradually, connectivity using satellite phones will

be established with all the districts.

The officials from districts have also been provided with all sorts of training necessary to operate satellite phones. It will ensure uninterrupted connectivity with the districts, even during an emergency.

It may be mentioned that the state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department has also planned to set up Quick Response Teams (QRT) for each district, to ensure better help to people during an emergency situation.

The decision to set up QRTs was taken after a District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) came into existence in each district.

Civil Defence Volunteers will be part of the QRTs and the number of volunteers in each team will be depending on the number of sub-divisions in the district. There will be around 25 volunteers for each sub-division.

This comes at the time when the department has become immensely successful in reducing the number of deaths due to lightning, by introducing a system in which people get alerted at least 45 minutes before lightning strikes an area. It is helping people to reach a safe place in the time they are getting after receiving the alert.