Kohima, January 28 (MExN): The quarterly meeting of the Kohima District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) was held at DC’s Conference Hall under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner, Kohima, Rajesh Soundararajan, IAS. The meeting reviewed the last meeting minutes and discussed the following agenda: On forest fire agenda, the DC felt that involvement of Village Council and administrative officers is required to pass on strict instructions to the villagers and the public especially during this windy season in order to prevent occurrence of forest fire which mostly happens to be man-made disaster. He also said that the district administrative officers would be asked to inform their respective Village Councils to monitor in their own jurisdictions. The District Forest Officer also informed that during fire incidences, the Inter-Departmental convergence have been assisting in whatever ways possible in the past years. The department had also been able to mobilize the resources and people and manages the fire successfully however he expressed that prevention has to be made in practice as experienced with some serious fire incidences that occurred in the past years. On the agenda of Disaster Mitigation activities, the DC requested the members to identify the area where mitigation activities can be taken up in their concerned area of working. In this connection, he also said that the district administration would write a request letter to allot some money for mitigation activities which will be used only for mitigation activities for any development especially during the monsoon season. Administrator KMC, Kovi Meyase, in response affirmed that it would be a positive initiative if certain fund could be used to mitigate natural disaster particularly landslide and mudslide in Kohima district. The meeting was also attended by DDMA members from various departments including the officials from NSDMA.
