Man-made disasters, like terror attacks, low-quality construction of heavy bridges and flyovers etc, have been haunting the people of the most happening state in the country?Andhra Pradesh. The police claim that, of late, the threat perception has increased, making it a necessity that the mechanism for disaster response be improved.
An industrialist, not willing to be quoted, says, ??The safety aspect in Hyderabad is becoming worse compared with other southern cities.?? Most industrialists dislike making any public comment on security issues, unlike on traffic jams, he points out. In fact, after the twin blasts, the security issues are often discussed inside the board rooms.
To drive home the point, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently organised a roundtable on disaster management and response, a reflection of the conditions in the state. CII proposed to work closely with government agencies in drafting a state plan for disaster management and also prepare a disaster management policy for its industry members to emulate. ??We are preparing some guidelines for employees and managers on how to behave outside the factory premises, whenever they encounter a disaster,?? Pradeep Dhoble, chairman CII, AP, told FE. The time-frame fixed for the preparation of the plan and policy will be between four and six months, he added. The proposed guidelines will propel the behaviour of employees and managers during disasters as part of preparedness and mitigation.
On terror, industry is ready to share employee personal data, for which they had expressed reservations earlier, as they felt that sharing employee data would increase poaching.
After the twin blasts, the city police have increased employee antecedent verification at all levels, especially in high-growth industries like infotech, health, transportation and hotel industries.
According to officials, the state is slowly gearing to face man-made tragedies on par with natural calamities. In fact, the government has undertaken training programmes at the district level for its employees during calamities, like floods. A similar exercise is expected to be undertaken for man-made disasters, too, sources said.