Telecom DM Coordination Meeting Held

The second meeting of the State Telecom Disaster Management (DM) Coordination meeting was held here on Monday which was chaired by R.K Dubey, Senior Deputy Director General, License Service Area (LSA) J&K, a field unit of Department of Telecommunication, Ministry of Telecommunications, Government of India.

Government of India has brought out a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for responding to disasters, under which the State Telecom Disaster Coordination Management Committee has been formed.

The meeting was attended by Director Disaster Management J&K, Aamir Ali, Commandant SDRF 2nd Bn Jammu Rashmi Wazir, Director (T) Dept of Telecommunications, Balvinder Singh, Joint Advisor NDMA, Anurag Rana, Supdt of Police, Telecommunications Sushil Kachroo, Representatives from NDRF and Fire and Emergency Services, besides Nodal Officers and senior representatives from all Telecom Service Providers, including BSNL, Airtel, Reliance Jio, Idea and Vodafone etc.

In the meeting preparedness of all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) of J&K Circle was reviewed. A presentation on the experiences of September 2014 floods, was also made by the TSPs.

All TSPs were directed to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to mitigate and minimise the possible damages to the telecom network in the event of disaster and ensure uninterrupted communication network.
Balvinder Singh, Director (T) informed that in the aftermath of disaster, the telecom services are required on top priority and play a pivotal role in undertaking rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures.

The role of Department of Telecommunication is to act as a lead as primary agency for emergency support function related to provision of telecommunication services by telecom service providers and coordination with other government agencies.

A table top exercise was held, followed by a mock drill to demonstrate the preparedness to deal with disasters. Rescue equipments available with SDRF and Fire and Emergency Services were also kept on display. – State Times