MoU signed to strengthen research and innovation in disaster management
The MoU was signed by Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd), Member, NDMA and Major General (Dr) Ashok Kumar (Retd), Director General of CENJOWS.
Delay in reconstruction of damaged schools, false survey reports due to callousness of concerned authorities is bound to affect the primary and high schools when they reopen after summer vacations on 19 June.
Several primary schools and high schools had been damaged by cyclone Fani. Majority of schools in Biridi and Raghunathpur block were worst hit in the 3 May cyclone. Reconstruction work of damaged schools has not yet started. A total of 165 high schools, 27 primary schools have been damaged.
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There is no damage of kutcha houses in Erasama block as this block is partially damaged but the department has shown the damage of six high schools in this block have been damaged. With barely five days remaining for reopening of schools, the students will suffer as they cannot use the classrooms.
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Guardians have alleged that the administration is playing with the fate of children for not taking immediate steps for reconstruction of school buildings.
More than a month has passed since the cyclone and nothing has moved in reconstruction work yet the “arm chair experts of NDMA, state government and even UN agencies issue certificates of world class cyclone preparedness and reconstruction in Odisha” said people in Jagatsinghpur out of sheer disgust. On Saturday, the BDO, Biridi, Girija Prasad Barik directed engineers to conduct fresh survey for assessment of damage of school buildings within two days.
District Project Coordinator Saba Sikhya Abhiyan Sapan Kumar Jena said ‘total 757 primary, high schools and aided school have been damaged by Fani Works and RD departments have asked to complete the reconstruction work of school buildings by 19th June. In case of incompleteness, it has decided to conduct classes’ in nearby schools’, he added.
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