Village youth getting rescue op training under Apat Mitra project

Initially, the project has been started in South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore districts as pilot projects, under which 200 youths are undergoing treatment in each district. Later, with the success of the pilot projects, the same will be implemented in all the other districts in the state.

It may be mentioned that at the time of emergencies, it is often found that support of local people is needed, besides the personnel of Disaster Management and Fire and Emergency Services department to carry out a rescue operation. It was also evident during the accident in Murshidabad, which has claimed 44 lives so far.

Keeping this in mind, the state government has mooted the plan and introduced the project to provide training on disaster management to youths in districts.

A senior official said that villagers, more specifically the local people of an area, are the first responders in case there is any emergency situation. So, it is always better if some of them are well trained. Then, they can at least save some lives instead of being in complete dark without having any knowledge on disaster management.

The youth have shown great enthusiasm in undergoing the training in both the districts and it is still going on. Later, more number of youths would be brought under the training programme.

At the same time, the state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department is providing "area specific" training to its volunteers, as the state has a diverse landscape with hills in its extreme north, sea in south and forests in the western part. So, local youth will get trained as per the requirement in their respective areas.