GUWAHATI, June 19 - The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), in association with the District Disaster Management Authority, on Monday started a training programme for community volunteers, titled �Aapda Mitra�.
The event is covering the two districts of Kamrup (Metro) and Jorhat.
A total of 200 community volunteers will be trained in eight batches in each phase to create a pool of community volunteers in the revenue circles of the two districts.
Training of the first two batches began today at the Central Training Institute, Panikhaiti here.
It was inaugurated by Meenakshi Das Nath, Joint Secretary and State Project Coordinator (SPC) of ASDMA.
Pulak Mahanta, Chief executive Officer of District Disaster Management Authority of Kamrup Metro, Subhash Das, Principal of the Central Training Institute, Pallab Jyoti Nath, Circle Officer of Chandrapur, along with other senior Officials from ASDMA and DDMA were present at the inaugural ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, Nath spoke about the importance of the training, especially in a disaster-prone state like Assam.
�In case of any disaster or emergency, before any government machinery and support reaches the affected people, it is the community which responds immediately. So, to create adequate awareness and preparedness at the community level, the Aapda Mitra training programme was envisaged by the National Disaster Management Authority,� she said.
This Centrally sponsored scheme aims to prepare the community volunteers with the skills that they would need to respond to their community�s immediate needs in the aftermath of a disaster, thereby enabling them to undertake basic relief and rescue tasks during emergency situations such as floods, flash floods and urban flooding.
