CRISIS MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Karaikal has formulated the “Crisis Management Framework and Standard Operating Procedures” for the Karaikal District. Different types of crises, various elements and phases of crisis management, Incident Response System (IRS), Emergency Support Functions and SOPs for ESF Teams and their Quick Response Teams (QRTs) are explained in the Framework.

DISTRICT LELVEL INCIDENT RESPONSE SYSTEM

At the District Level, one District Headquarters Team with the primary function of assisting the Collector (Responsible Officer) in handling tasks like general coordination, distribution of relief materials, media management and the overall logistics is envisaged.

In the District level Incident Response System, the Collector is the Responsible Officer, the Senior Superintendent of Police is (L&O) is the Safety Officer, Public Relations Officer, Information Department is the Information Officer and Commissioner, Municipality is the Liason Officer to the Incident Commander. Planning Unit headed by the Emergency Support Functions are the common functions that need to be carried out in response to any crisis or disaster. The causes of emergencies vary but the potential effects of these emergencies are similar. Irrespective of the disaster or crisis situation the types of support functions are fairly similar and such support functions are called as Emergency Support Functions.

ROLE OF DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE & DISASTER MANAGEMENT

3. The Department of Revenue and Disaster Management is the Nodal Department for management of disasters. DRDM is also entrusted with the entire gamut of relief and rehabilitation activities in the wake of any disaster. The Crisis Management Framework provided that the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (RRC) is the Incident Commander for the Union territory while the District Collectors, Puducherry and Karaikal are the incident commander for the respective regions and the Regional Administrators, Mahe / Yanam who are also the Sub/Deputy Collectors (rev.) are the incident commanders for Mahe and Yanam, respectively. Therefore, the DRDM is responsible for management of disasters and the relief and rehabilitation activities undertaken post disaster.

4. In the Crisis Management Framework (CMF), the DRDM is entrusted with three vital Emergency Support Functions, viz.,

a. ESF – 6 – Evacuation, and
b. ESF – 8 – Damage Assessment.

Besides the above ESFs, DRDM is also a Support Agency for various ESFs and has nominated Team Members for other ESF teams as well.

5. The CMF explains in detail the variety of functions/tasks to be undertaken by the DRDM in respect of the said three ESFs. All the three ESFs have their own Quick Response Teams (QRTs) and their SOPs have also been explained. The details of various ESFs and their members along with the contact numbers is given in the Annexure – XIII. The objective of this Action Plan is to delineate duties to various revenue officials so as to help the ESFs / QRTs of the above said ESF 6 and 8.

ZONAL OFFICER:

6. For the purpose of effective and efficient management to meet out any eventuality, Karaikal District is sub-divided into 2 Zones. Each Zone will be co-terminus with the jurisdiction of a Taluk, which will function under the control of a “Zonal Officer”. (The list of Zonal Officers is at Annexure-I). The Zonal officers shall report to the Team Leader of the QRTs for the Emergency Support Function 6 and 8 who are the jurisdictional Sub / Deputy Collector (Rev.).

7. The Tahsildar of the respective Taluk will co-ordinate with the Zonal Officer and provide necessary assistance to the Task Forces constituted under them. Zonal officers shall report to the Sub/Deputy Collector (Revenue)–cum-Sub-Divisional Magistrate concerned and take stock of overall situation and act accordingly in providing relief, rehabilitation and assessment of damages etc. in consonance with the provisions of the Crisis Management Framework by coordinating the activities with other ESF Teams and their respective QRTs. The Zonal Officer shall be subordinate to the District Collector and shall function as per the directions and orders of the District Collector or the Sub Divisional Magistrate.

TASK FORCE:

8. The Karaikal District has 6 Firkas (The list of Taluks, Firkas & Revenue Villages is given at Annexure-III). A Task Force will be set-up for every Firka which will be headed by a Revenue Official not below the rank of Dy. Tahsildar who will be designated as the Task Force Leader. The Action Plan of the Firka Task Force is given below. The Proforma of the Situation Report to be submitted by the Leader of the Task Force is also given.

TEAM MEMBERS OF THE TASK FORCE:

9. The Task Force shall comprise the Firka jurisdictional Revenue Inspector and Village Administrative Officer (Annexure – IV). The Task Force shall work in close coordination with QRTs of other ESFs. It shall be the duty of the Task Force Leader to get acquainted with the following officials of other line departments who are contributing their services to various ESFs/QRTS.

a. Welfare Inspectors (Adi Welfare / Women & Child / Social Welfare)
b. Civil Supplies Inspector
c. Fisheries Inspector of the Firka jurisdiction covering the coastal area
d. Agriculture Officers of Agriculture Department
e. Jurisdictional officer of Animal Husbandry Department
f. Junior Engineer of P.W.D.
g. Junior Engineer of Electricity Department
h. Village Level Worker of Rural Development Department

HEAD QUARTERS OF THE TASK FORCE:

10. The Department of Revenue & Disaster Management has identified the Head quarters of every Task Force as detailed at Annexure-II.

OPERATION OF THE TASK FORCE:

11. The Task Force shall function under the direct supervision of the Zonal Officer. The Task Force shall immediately report to the Zonal Officer about any requirement to meet the eventuality and will in turn contact the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) and/or directly to the Team Leader of the concerned ESF / QRT under intimation to the EOC. The Task Force shall requisition the services of the resources of all other ESFs/ QRTs, & Fire Services whenever required.

CONTINGENCY FUND:

12. The Zonal Officer who is in-charge of the operation of the Task Force shall utilize the contingency fund of Rs.50,000/- provided by the Department of Revenue & Disaster Management to meet out any immediate requirement/expense at their own discretion.

VEHICLES TO TASK FORCE:

13. In order to enable each Task Force to function swiftly in mitigating, responding and extending relief assistance to the victims, each Task Force will be provided with one TATA SUMO / JEEP / BOLERO. Vehicles and other equipments like JCB, Crane, Poclain, etc., for excavation of earth/debris, pumping out flood water from a low lying area, etc during exigency shall be requisitioned from ESF 7 and its QRT.

14. The Task Force will be supplied with sufficient number of basic requirements such as i) Firka-wise list of low lying areas (listed in Annexure-V) ;ii) Details of telephone numbers of Important officers (listed in Annexure-VI); iii) List of Central Kitchens (listed in Annexure-XI) ; iv) List of Hospitals and Medicare facilities and ambulance services (Annexure – VII) ; v) Details of Regional Meteorological Centres (Annexure – VIII) ; vi) Details of NDRF / Coast Guard / NCC (Annexure – IX); vii) Important contact numbers of Neighboring Districts (Annexure – X); viii) Details of media (Annexure – XII) List of vehicles for Emergency Operations (Annexure –XIII).

POWERS OF THE STATE/DISTRICT AUTHORITY UNDER THE DISASTER MANAGEMENT ACT, 2005.

Section 63 – Powers to be made available for Rescue Operation

15. State Disaster Management Authority/State Emergency Centres/District Disaster Management Authority (or) any authorized person have the powers to utilise service of any Officer (or) employee working under any Officer (or) authority of the Union (or) State to perform any function in connection with prevention of disaster (or) mitigation (or) rescue (or) relief work.
Section 65 – Powers to requisition resources, provisions, vehicles, etc.

16. State Disaster Management Authority/State Emergency Centres/District Disaster Management Authority (or) any authorized person any resource/premises/vehicles available with any authority (or) person for using the same in connection with prompt response, rescue operations, transport of resources from (or) to the affected areas.

Section 56 – Failure of Officer in duty.

17. Any Officer on whom any duty has been imposed by (or) under this Act and who ceases (or) refuses to perform (or) withdraws himself from the duties will be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year (or) with fine, unless he has obtained the express written permission of his official superior (or) has other lawful excuses for doing so.

Section 69 – Delegation of Power

18. All the Firka-wise Task Forces are constituted by the District Disaster Management Authority. The Deputy Tahsildars-cum-Executive Magistrates who head the Task Forces are hereby delegated the following powers as envisaged in the Disaster Management Act, 2005 in connection with any disaster.
a) Powers to issue such guidelines/instructions or orders or directions to all departments relating to relief and rehabilitation of any calamity including Police, Fire Services Home Guards as might be considered necessary for the purpose of effectively carrying out the relief and rehabilitation operations and it shall be duty of such persons and authorities to carry out such guidelines, instruction, orders or directions ;
b) Powers to requisition the services of any adult private individual and to assign to him such responsibility, consistent with his age and ability, as may be deemed fit and proper, for the purpose of carrying out the Relief & Rehabilitation on account of the calamity.
c) Powers to requisition men and material from any Government organisation Department, corporations, companies, public sector undertakings and the like, functioning within his jurisdiction with a view to extend relief and rehabilitation to the victims of the natural calamity.
19. The leaders of Firka-wise Task Forces shall ensure that all their team members are working in tandem. Any insubordination, unwillingness to work on the part of the team members shall be viewed very seriously by the District Disaster Management Authority. From the time the Task Force is deployed, all the individuals in the Task Force shall work as a team till orders are issued withdrawing the Force from the disaster area.

FIRKA WISE TASK FORCE ACTION PLAN

a) On receipt of official warning, the Zonal Officer shall cause the Task Force under his purview to group and station itself at their respective Headquarters along with vehicles allotted.

b) Immediately after positioning Head of the Task Force shall call 1070 and report that the Force is positioned in the Field.

c) Task Force to study the area, contact local people / villagers and assess the field level situation.

d) Assess the requirements of affected people affected. If required, evacuation of vulnerable population to relief shelters must be undertaken with the help of QRT under ESF 6 i.e. Evacuation.

e) Task Force shall liaise with ESF 9 to open relief centers and to record the details of the evacuees sheltered under each relief center.

f) Task Force shall coordinate with ESF 10 i.e. Food and Civil Supply to arrange food for the evacuees.

g) Task Force shall coordinate with ESF 5 i.e. Transportation who are entrusted with arranging vehicles for transport of food from Central Kitchen to the affected area.

h) If food requirement is higher in addition to that supplied by ESF 10, Task Force shall assist ESF 10 / QRT 10 to requisition food from local bodies concerned. It shall be responsibility of ESF / QRT 10 to supply food to the affected people.

i) Talk Force shall ensure drinking water to evacuees sheltered in relief camps by coordinating with ESF 11 and its QRT.

j) During disasters (heavy rain, cyclone etc.) the Task Force shall assess damages due to disaster and continuously furnish information to the EOC(1070). For each day, a Situation Report shall be submitted by the Task Force to the EOC through the Zonal Officer and Sub/Deputy Collector (Revenue) Concerned. Even if no damages are noticed, a NIL report shall be submitted. Proforma for submission of SITUATION REPORTS is given below.

k) The Taluk Tahsildars shall direct the RIs and VAOs concerned to assist the Task Force.

l) The Task Force shall also liaise with ESF 15 (Law & Order – Police) and ESF 2 (Emergency Medical Services & Public Health) and their QRTs to ensure that people injured due to disasters are rushed to the nearest PHCs / Hospitals.

m) Task Force shall utilize the services of all other ESFs and their QRTs while responding to disaster. They can approach the Team Leader and ESFs / QRTs concerned to get assistance for alleviating the situation.

n) The activities of the Task Force shall be closely monitored by the Taluk Tahsildar, Zonal Officer and DeputyCollector(Revenue) concerned.