VADODARA, Dec 16: When a massive blast and fire took place in the HPCL's oil refinery at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh, they did not even have adequate telephones to listen to public cries for help. Stating this in Vadodara on Wednesday, the then Vizag Collector Veena Ishe said the scene is different in Vadodara which has a central control room set up by industrial units and that it has coordination with the district administration.She was delivering the key-note address at a seminar on experiences of different government agencies in disaster management organised by the Central Control Room, the Factories Inspectorate and the District Collectorate. Ishe, currently Additional Secretary to the Andhra Pradesh Government, said handling a disaster in Vizag and Vadodara are two different things.
Inaugurating the seminar, Police Commissioner Kuldip Sharma said the age-old system of informing the public the last in case of a disaster needed to be changed. He said he did not agree with the system of informing people last whenever any safety strategy was planned vis-a-vis industrialisation. People should be aware of the do's and don'ts when a disaster take places, he said.
District Collector Anil Mukim, ONGC Executive Director N. Lal, IPCL Director (Operations) S K Anand, Senior Factories Inspector B P Parmar, EME School Brigadier Sharma and several other senior officials were present at the seminar.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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