Lt Governor for increasing visibility of IRCS

Srinagar, May 27: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Friday chaired the 177th Managing Committee meeting of J&K Chapter of Indian Red Cross Society. The high level meeting of the office bearers and members of IRCS was convened at Raj Bhavan.
During the meeting, the Lt Governor, who is the President of the organization reviewed the activities and programs conducted by IRCS-JK across the UT in last two years and the tasks performed by the volunteers and the staff of the organization.
The meeting decided to incorporate new social welfare activities and training programs in the yearly calendar of Red Cross Society.
The Lt Governor directed for constituting a committee under the chairmanship of Vivek Bharadwaj, Financial Commissioner, (Additional Chief Secretary), Finance Department for examining various issues presented during the meeting as agenda items.
Directions were also issued for instituting functional units of IRCS across all Districts of the UT, besides revamping the functioning of regional and UT level headquarters.
The Lt Governor directed General Secretary, IRCS to bring out an Annual Calendar for the training of UT and District level Disaster Response Teams and stock sufficient quantity of relief material such as tents, blankets, first aid kits at appropriate locations where these could be used immediately and managed efficiently, during any emergent situation.
He stressed on connecting maximum volunteers by organizing outreach programs on priority.
The Lt Governor directed the UT-level committee for submitting the future action plan of the organization within 15 days.
He further urged Red Cross to collaborate with other government agencies for implementation of various schemes at grass root levels. Deputy Commissioners were directed for actively organizing and supporting the activities of Red Cross Society in their respective districts.
Earlier, Kifayat Hussain Rizvi, General Secretary, IRCS-JK gave a brief on the achievements, activities and programs of IRCS-JK including Covid-19 response, Immunization programmes, Blood Donation camps, Ambulance services, First-Aid training and Awareness camps.
Dinesh Gupta, Member Managing Committee IRCS-JK apprised the meeting on various core issues and need for revitalizing the organization at the District level.
Shailendra Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Government, Public Works (R&B) Department; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; B K Singh, Principal Secretary School Education; Sheetal Nanda, Commissioner/Secretary, Social Welfare Department, besides Deputy Commissioners, senior officers of UT administration, BSF, CRPF, Army, office-bearers of IRCS-JK attended the meeting in person and through virtual mode.