Nitish Kumar for making available five boats in every panchayat

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday instructed that five boats should be made available in every village panchayat in the state and a few locals should be trained in navigating them in view of the yearly floods in the state.

The fund for the purpose should be drawn from the MLA and MP development funds, he told the tenth meeting of state disaster management authority .

Kumar also directed officials to increase the number of teams of State Disaster Response Force from 16 at present to 50.

He said that more than six crore citizens of the state are using mobile phones which could be effectively used for creating awareness against natural calamities and safeguards against them, an official statement said.

The chief minister instructed to prepare assessment for retrofitting of schools, hospitals and all medical colleges in the state.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, who was present at the meeting, stressed on making available life jackets in the boats.

Pratyay Amrit, principal secretary to the disaster management department, laid emphasis on flood preparedness and storing of items like polythene sheets in December itself for the next year's deluge instead of doing so in May next year.