The Minister of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief, Vladimir Puchkov, held a joint meeting of the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief Board and Military Council of rescue military units.
The participants discussed the level of preparedness of the 996th Rescue Centre at the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief located in the village of Kurakovo in the Tula Region to run missions. The centre’s mission is to respond to various emergencies in the Central Federal District. The officials there have focused on improving personnel training and related specialties. Approximately half of the equipment has been replaced and upgraded recently. This figure will increase by a third before 2016.
Board participants discussed The Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief Concept to Develop Communications Systems and Information and Telecommunications Technology to 2015. The adoption of this concept will improve the efficient control over the Ministry’s forces and facilities and facilitate the coordination of joint actions with the units of other related organisations.
They also discussed the creation of Ministry forces in the Arctic where ten rescue centres will be running before the end of 2015.
The next item on the agenda was the implementation of the federal targeted programme Fire Security in the Russian Federation to 2017 adopted at the end of 2012. The programme is aimed at improving the quality of public fire safety and property fire security. Judging by the results of the first six months of 2013, the implementation of this programme has been successful. One of the indicators is regional efforts to provide for fire security: the regions have built or reconstructed 61 fire depots and fire posts, purchased over 200 fire fighting vehicles, and over 500 units of fire-fighting and rescue equipment. In addition, the regions have supplied fire-fighting equipment, fire alarm and fire warning systems, and automatic fire extinguishing equipment to social, healthcare and educational institutions; the regions have made other efforts to improve fire safety as well. Over 11 billion roubles have been allocated to this end.
The participants also discussed offering special scholarships to the best students at the institutes of the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief. A list of 29 candidates was submitted for approval. As a result, 18 students will get these scholarships next year. However, many more deserve these scholarships according to the results of the academic exams. Currently the Ministry is considering increasing the number of scholarships (to 30) and the amount of payment itself.
Source: Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief
