Edu-leaders

The Jharkhand government is contemplating strategic tie-up with top tech-cradles to help the state fight calamities—both natural and man-made.

Struggling with severe shortage of technical experts, the state government is expected to ink deals with prestigious institutions like BIT (Mesra), Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, and Birsa Agriculture University (BAU), Kanke, to draw up plans and assist the government in case of earthquakes, floods, landslides, mining disaster, anti-drought technology and food security measures with their technical expertise.

Disaster Management Department Secretary Neelima Kerketta said the department was drafting separate proposals for signing the agreements with these institutions, which would not only train the manpower being engaged to fight the disaster, but also draw up strategic plan to minimise the casualty in case of troubled situation.

BIT Mesra will be working in the field of earthquakes, floods and landslides; ISM-Dhanbad will be entrusted to come up with on-field solutions to mining threats and BAU is expected to work on anti-drought technologies and food security. The Jharkhand Space Application Centre, a wing of the Science and Technology Department, will work on forest fires.

The tie-up will be on a private-public partnership (PPP) mode, Kerketta said, adding that the institutions have also evinced their interest in extending their support in the mission.

Although Jharkhand falls in the safe zone as far as seismic disturbances are concerned, experts said there were no known guarantees against quakes. “Himalayan regions are quake-prone. However, the disaster in Bhuj in 2001 proved that even plains aren’t safe. New cities are more at threat, as multi-format high-rises come up without proper town planning and precautionary measures,” said experts.

Once partnerships are sealed in the form of MoUs, BIT-Mesra will set up an integrated earthquake management cell to identify quake threats. The institute is allocated Rs 3.25 crore to set up an earthquake knowledge centre. 40 per cent of the cost will be borne by the institute and the rest by the state. The cost estimates of the other two centres at ISM-Dhanbad, and BAU, haven’t been worked out yet.

According to Avijit Burman, faculty member of department of civil engineering, BIT-Mesra, the knowledge centre would initially work for five years. It will detect threats and devise solutions, and also sensitise the people about their roles in fighting the disaster, he said.