The Bihar state branch of Indian Medical Association (IMA) has set up a state-level disaster management cell with its headquarters at IMA building in the city.

State IMA president Dr Raman Kumar Verma, state secretary Dr Arun Kumar Thakur and finance secretary Dr Shivendra Kumar Sinha would be ex-officio members of the cell with Dr V S Singh as its chairman.

In a press release issued here on Sunday, IMA state president Dr Verma and state secretary Dr Thakur said the other members of the cell included DrSahajanand Prasad Singh, Dr Bhartendu Kumar (Muzaffarpur), Dr S N Mahatha (Darbhanga), Dr K K Singh (Begusarai), Dr Bindeshwar Prasad Singh (Patna), Dr Bimal Kumar Karak (Patna) and Dr Sachchidanand Kumar (Patna).

The IMA office-bearers said the cell would function as a permanent committee and one-third of its members would retire every year except for those who get re-elected. They said the cell had been constituted in view of the natural, man-made and technical disasters.

They said the cell would co-ordinate its activities with the Central IMA and the state government. They said the IMA has resolved to set up such cells at its 94 local branches by the end of September this year. To begin with, it has decided to train 1,000 First Aid Volunteers in each district and a directory of 1,000 young voluntary blood donors shall be prepared after their blood groupings, the office-bearers said. Each cell at the local branch level shall have a well-trained rapid response unit.

Mass awareness would be created educating people about dos and dont's during a disaster. A list of doctors would be prepared who would rush for help at short notice. A separate fund would be created for disaster management and to begin with one per cent of the IMA budget would be earmarked for this purpose, they said.