Lack of equipments derailed rescue operations admits Kyrmen

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 14, 2019

SHILLONG: The Minister of Disaster Management government of Meghalaya Kyrmen Shylla has admitted that there is an immediate need to upgrade the equipments used by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) in wake of the recent incident which happened at Diengiong villager under Mawdiangdiang Outpost as three people lost their lives after they drowned in a 60-ft deep ring-well.

It may be mentioned that during the operation to retrieve the body of the trio by personnel of the SDRF one of them also had problems with his breathing at it was suffocating inside the ring-well and hence had to be pulled out of the well during the operation.

Speaking to reporters, on Tuesday at his office chamber, Shylla said, “We are not actually well equip when it comes to dealing with such incidents and yesterday we had also discussed by officers of the department to find a way to send our proposal to upgrade the equipments of the SDRF personnel.”

He said that such incidents will happen again in the near future and there is a need to prevent such thing from happening and better service should also be provided during such a disaster and hence there is a need for better equipments and even the SDRF should also undergo further training courses.

“It’s high time for the government to be well equip especially the SDRF because even during the operation to retrieve the bodies of the trio even one of our SDRF rescuer had experienced suffocation and hence had to be pulled back up from the ring well,” he said.

When asked whether the state government will provide compensation to the family members of those three people who had lost their lives in the incident, he said, “There are norms within the disaster management when such incidents happens and compensation will be provided by the government.”

Without revealing the amount of compensation to be given to the victims’ families, he said the amount will be decided as per the norms and clauses of the department.

He informed that the department will soon have a meet to discuss on the proposal to upgrade the equipments of SDRF personal and on the need for further training.

“This will also be taken up with the Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma so that better service can be provided during such incidents to the public of the state by the department,” he said.