BHUBANESWAR: Twin cities commissioner of police R P Sharma, while attending the raising day of the home guard service,

BHUBANESWAR: The state government has decided to enroll community volunteers in several disaster-prone districts into civil defence, a voluntary service wing under the state home department. The volunteers will be trained to protect people during natural and manmade disasters. The key responsibilities of the civil defence volunteers include dissemination of warning, evacuation of people, management of shelters, rescue and restoration operations during calamities. The civil defence setup, which had been lying in a moribund state, got a fresh lease of life after the state government recently integrated the wing under the fire services. Though the wing was earlier functioning in Bhubaneswar, Talcher, Rourkela, Koraput and Paradip, its planning, training and implementation fell by the wayside owing to shortage of manpower. At present, a couple of hundred volunteers are working with civil defence against the target of 21,540. "Initially, we will train at least 255 youths in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal and Jagatsinghpur," director of fire services M Nageswar Rao said on the sidelines of the raising day of civil defence here on Friday. "Assistant fire officers in those five towns have been designated as ex-officio deputy controller of civil defence. Enrolment camps will be held in different places and training sessions conducted for the volunteers," Rao said. Sources said the ministry of home affairs had given Rs 70 lakh to the state government to construct buildings for civil defence offices in the five towns. Besides, the Centre has provided Rs 11 lakh to each town to buy vehicles and equipment for the civil defence, sources said. IG (civil defence) Pranabindu Acharya said training programmes would be organised at regular intervals for the civil defence volunteers. Besides, the volunteers would be acquainted with their jobs during emergency and the general public would be sensitized about the cause of the organization. Civil defence training would also be imparted to the members of NCC, scouts and guides, Red Cross, NSS, school and college students, who are treated as auxiliary manpower for the civil defence. Meanwhile, twin cities commissioner of police R P Sharma, while attending the raising day of the home guard service, said the police would impart special training to the home guards to rise to the occasion during crisis situations. Source :: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhubaneswar/Government-to-rope-in-volunteers-for-disaster-mgmt/articleshow/27014679.cms