Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Dr Raghav Langer on Tuesday reviewed the progress on development of Decision Support System in Jammu and Kashmir here at a meeting with Heads of all the concerned departments, Deputy Commissioners and the agency involved in developing the system. A demonstration was also held on Decision Support System.Pertinently, Subsequent to the September 2014 flood, the Government of J&K initiated the Jhelum Tawi Flood Recovery Project (JTFRP). The project is implementing a series of reconstruction and capacity building activities to strengthen disaster risk management capacities of J&K. Two key initiatives in this line are the multi-hazard risk assessment (MHRA) study and the development of DSS for Emergency Management. The twin projects are being implemented by RMSI Pvt Ltd, India.During the meeting, the concerned officer gave a detailed demonstration on the DDS and informed that it is a web-based application that helps to connect district control rooms with ESF departments for effective coordination and administering ground situations remotely during emergency situations. The DSS also helps with pre-positioning of resources as part of preparedness, and helps to generate various status reports which are required for decision making.The DSS will be deployed at UT SDMA Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) and District Emergency Operation Centre (DEOC).The Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) of Police Control Room (PCR) is integrated into DSS and all incidents related to natural hazards, fire, accidents reported in ERSS will be directly reflected in DSS, in addition to the provision of reporting incidents on call or mobile application by any field officer. Once the incident is authenticated by the staff at the district control room, an auto generated call alert will go to the registered mobile phone of all the Incident Response Team (IRT) members informing them about the incident. The call will go to Tehsil level or District level IRT based on the severity level of the incident. For instance, a local road accident will be reported to tehsil level of IRT while a flood hazard affecting more than one tehsil will be initiated by the IRT of the district.The ESF departments will subsequently get service requests based on field requirements via SMS and ESF once dispatch service and can update this using the link in the SMS. The District authorities can monitor the status of service requests and status online and can augment the resources quickly, if the situation demands.The DSS also has national and global warming feeds, a historic event database and UT’s baseline information from various sources in a single platform for the decision makers.The key dashboards of DSS are Preparedness and Mitigation, Hazard monitoring, Emergency Response module, Damage Assessment etc.It was further informed that the Users accessing the DSS from different districts will only be able to view incidents in their own area of interest (i.e. their district), users’ from the Division level can view all ten districts, where as users from the UT EOC level can view the incident happening in the entire UT. Incidents will be handled at the district level, resource management and request will be coordinated at the district control room and in case of any requirement at Division/UT level this can also be coordinated through the DSS.The Div Com instructed developer agencies to integrate Forest protection, SDRF, MET, Traffic, Police, NSA with DSS as all these departments have dashboard data which can be integrated and shared through a single portal. He also suggested integrating 108, 104 ambulance services.Dr Langer further asked the developer agency to hold a demonstration with all concerned departments and each Deputy Commissioners according to roster so that the information gap to be incorporated and to check whether all their assets are filled or not and to integrate the database available with the departments.He asked the Deputy Commissioners to share the data/information of the district for uploading the same on the DSS so that correct information will be available on the DSS.During the meeting the Deputy Commissioners and HoDs also gave their valuable suggestions for making it the best.The Div Com said that the Decision support System will help in taking the right decision at the right time.The meeting was attended by SSP Traffic, Director FCS&CA, Director ERA besides senior functionaries of Police, SDRF, Forest, Health, Social Welfare, Jal Shakti, JPDCL, JMC, Sheep Husbandry, Animal Husbandry, JKRTC, BSNL and other concerned while Deputy Commissioners of Jammu division participated in the meeting through video conferencing.
