PANJIM/MARGAO: If a tree falls in the middle of your road or if you wake up in the middle of the night with your drawing room flooded and you make a desperate call to your “control room” the chances are that the voice at the other end will simply ask you for your name, number and area you are calling from and inform you that your complaint has been “noted” and will be passed on.
In case you are really desperate and say so you will be helpfully advised to call the fire brigade or the police.
But that’s something you already know. So what’s the control room set up to manage disasters for? These reporters searched for the answers to this quintessential question but couldn’t find any. What does this control doom do?
O Heraldo teams found both the control rooms in Panjim and Margao, ill-equipped and staffers posted at the control rooms were just receiving phone calls, registering the complaints received at night, which were perused by the higher officials the next morning.
In some places, there are both landlines and cell phones, while in other places there are only landlines. Similarly in some talukas, there are only cell phones, which are not attended to, particularly in Pernem and Sattari talukas during the night.
In recent days, both district disaster management authorities who have drawn public ire for not rushing for help immediately as the panicked-stricken public claimed that they first approach the authorities such as fire and emergency services for any help or rescue operations.
The office of Mamlatdar holding charge of the disaster management authority cell in Margao, informed that there are four staff deployed at the control room round-the-clock, wherein two work in a shift. The staff are not from other departments but from the collectorate office.
However, it was different in Panjim, as staff from other departments has been deployed, and worked in two shifts. There is only one staffer during the night (6 pm to 9 am the next day) to take calls and a driver.
The staff in the Panjim control room told the O Heraldo team that they only register the complaints received during the night and refer them to the mamlatdar the next morning, but depending on the gravity of the situation they call the mamlatdar, who resides in Margao.
“If it is an extreme emergency situation, we intimate the taluka mamlatdar, same night and also the fire and emergency services, who are the first to respond to any sort of emergency,” said the lone night shift staffer at the Panjim Control Room.
It was found that control rooms are devoid of key requirements necessary to effectively respond to and manage emergencies, particularly during monsoon. There was no adequate manpower deployed to attend to any emergency during the night.
The seamless communication between the control room, emergency response teams and other stakeholders was missing, while the top government officials were found to be trained in handling emergencies, whereas the staff deployed in the control room lacked training and were not well-versed in disaster management protocols.
The staff was completely unaware of the emergency response plans and protocols.
Citizens allege that the disaster management team is the last authority that reaches the spot.
“Actually, the emergency team needs to be anchored at the control room so that they rush to the site immediately,” said Rodney D’Souza, a Navelim resident.
He said recently the disaster management team was the last one to respond to the incident of the wall collapse of the building of Margao Urban Health Centre.
Similar is the case at the Margao control room where the fire and emergency services are the first to respond to emergencies, admitted a staffer deployed there.