1. INTRODUCTION

6. Organising local work teams for immediate rescue, and relief e.g. cooked food, first
aid,assistance in law and order
7. Assisting the handicapped who need special help
8. Facilitating movement of relief teams during evacuation and relief and ensuring
appropriate tagging as and when necessary
9. Guarding major installations and evacuated properties till the administration takesover.
These CERTs are expected to support the efforts of the Gram Panchayat and Tahsildar.
4) Villages CERTs formed :
Ahmednagar district has a recurrent problem of floods. There are many flood prone
villages along the major rivers and in almost all the tahsils.Such “Community Emergency
Response Teams” formed in these flood prone villages.
5) Areas of Community Participation :
Administration and NGOs at the disaster site should ensure maximum community
participation in all stages of operation in order to maintain community morale and
confidence, maximise the use of local resources, reduce costs of operation and promote a
faster recovery. It is important to note that the so-called “victims” are not all that helpless
and offer a tremendous manpower resource and ingenuity to overcome the crises. Disaster
management situations offers a wide range of choice and demands a immediate decision
making. The participation of communities and their representatives would reduce the
pressures on administration with regard to the choice and uncertainties of community’s
response to the decision-making process.
Based on local dynamics, ethos and the experience of the Latur earthquake, an appropriate
strategy to ensure community support has been evolved. Such efforts to enlist community
support and participation have gone a long way in reassuring the community about the
administration’s intent and seriousness about managing the disaster.
Efforts to enlist community participation is being ensured by
‣ identifying situational, opinion and position leaders in the community and voicing
administration’s confidence in their capabilities to undertake the tasks.
‣ Consultations and dialogues expressly indicating the need for assistance would
encourage the community and its leaders to come forward.
‣ Regular feedback meetings and an open book approach to demonstrate transparency.
‣ Involving community in decision making at local levels
The major areas of community participation are being identified and include the
following :
1 During Evacuation
C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\C.Lotus.Notes.DataRevised Grain Bank