Bhubaneswar:. The Odisha Council of Ministers Saturday resolved to undertake systematic and detailed training programs to equip the citizens with adequate knowledge and skills in disaster and pandemic management and make Odisha a leading state in Disaster preparedness – ready to tackle any disaster whether its biological or climatic.
The world has changed its perception about Odisha’s ability to deal with disasters in the course of the last two decades. There was a time when we evoked pity. Today, the Odisha model of disaster management draws global admiration.
At the centre of this transformation is our deep conviction that “Every life is precious ”. Our disaster preparedness is rooted on community involvement.
Covid-19 has created a new reality for all of us. Unlike a cyclone that comes and goes, the Pandemic has brought in two new dimensions of human crisis.
One, is the inability to put a timeline as to when a crisis will move on. The second, is the way a crisis may assume new and unexpected forms.
The time has come for us to create a massive knowledge infrastructure in the State that will make everyone a warrior.
Today, we are taking a futuristic decision. We will train our people at large on how to deal with known emergencies and how to respond to situations where the outcome cannot be predicted.
From now on, every high school and college student will learn about disaster and pandemic management as part of the curriculum.
We will train every Government employee on the fundamental nature of different kinds of disaster and pandemic management. Government jobs and recruitment will have a mandatory syllabus on disaster and pandemic management.
The role of our elected representatives changes significantly during times of distress. From ward members to Chief Minister everyone will be trained on disaster and pandemic management.
We will train members of our Mission sakti groups, Vana Surakya Samitis, and other community based organizations and equip them with the knowledge required to manage disaster and pandemics.
Basically the objective is to have a Yodha in every home of Odisha.
A task force will be formed to carry forwad this mission of building a disaster and pandemic resilient odisha. This will be our biggest preparation for future emergencies.
