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NE Regional Conference on Earthquake and Landslide Mitigation
Meghalaya Education Minister, Shri. Lahkmen Rymbui today inaugurated the 2-days ‘North East Regional Conference on Earthquake and Landslide Mitigation- Building Disaster Resilience in North East India’ at the State Convention Centre, Shillong.
Organized by the Meghalaya State Disaster Management Authority, the inaugural session of the conference was attended by Meghalaya Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Shri. Kyrmen Shylla, Chief Secretary, Shri. Y. Tsering, Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department , Shri. P.W Ingty, Executive Director, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Shri. B. H Anil Kumar, Secretary, Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Government of Meghalaya, Shri. H.B Marak, Executive Director, Meghalaya State Disaster Management Authority, Smt. I. Mawlong, officials representing various State and Central Government Departments, representatives of the armed force including Air Force, Army, and the State Police, and others.
During his address at the programme, Meghalaya Education Minister, Shri. Lahkmen Rymbui said that the conference provides the right platform for deliberations on different aspects of disaster management and risk reduction, while also calling for the co-operation of all North Eastern States as disasters which strike any of the North Eastern States may directly or indirectly impact neighboring states of the region.
Stating that disasters, whether natural or man-made can strike any place at any time, the Minister said that discussions on the measures to minimize the damage caused by disasters become all the more important. He also said that more awareness is required in order that the citizens, including traditional institutions and students are better informed and educated on matters pertaining to disaster management and mitigation.
Meghalaya Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Shri. Kyrmen Shylla meanwhile in his speech stated that with the North Eastern Region being prone to disasters like landslides, earthquakes etc, and with it belonging to Zone V of the Seismic Zone Map of India, mitigation measures including awareness and education would go a long way towards reducing the impact of such disasters. He further said that investments in mitigation pay direct dividends in times of disasters.
During the programme, the website of the Meghalaya State Disaster Management Authority was launched and publications by the Meghalaya State Disaster Management Authority were also released by the dignitaries.
It may be mentioned that the 2-days regional conference is being organized with an aim of bringing together professionals, academicians, agencies, students and others to a common platform for interaction, sharing and knowledge building on disaster resilient issues with special focus on mitigation measures for earthquake and landslide particularly for North East India. The focus areas of the conference include earthquake mitigation measures in North East India, landslide mitigation measures in North East India and best practices on earthquake and landslide mitigation measures from the participating states, with persons playing prominent roles in natural disaster management in the country including those from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), New Delhi, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), New Delhi, Geological Survey of India (GSI), New Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC), Umiam, Meghalaya, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Guwahati etc, as resource persons for the technical sessions.