While addressing the media on Thursday, chief of the Disaster Management Council, S Ahmed, said work was on to make the Emergency Operation Centres in the state more effective though they were not operational yet.
A workshop on media's role in disaster management was organized on Thursday with an aim to explore how the media could play a more useful role in disaster management, especially in spreading awareness and proper dissemination of information in times of calamity.
"The District Disaster Management Committees, headed by the respective deputy commissioners, are there with mobile medical units, which would be deployed to areas hit by disasters," Ahmed said, adding that finance would not be an impediment.
Informing that almost 75 per cent of villages in the state have disaster management committees, he said there were provisions for disaster response funds at district levels. Besides, the Centre would bear 75 per cent of resources under Calamity Relief Fund in cases of emergency, he added.
"The point is not to create panic but to make people aware of disaster management methods," said P Marbaniang, former deputy director of the directorate of information and public relations, who was a resource person at the workshop.
Marbaniang added that there were early warning' and search and rescue' teams, amongst others. He, however, admitted that many of the plans were only on paper till now and yet to be impletented.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya Administrative Training Institute has conducted training in disaster management for teachers, engineers, medical officers, paramedics, state government officers, NGOs, village elders, scouts and guides, NCC cadets and members of the NYK, NSS and Red Cross Society.
However, officials admitted that the response to disaster management workshops in the state has been lukewarm.