XN000022-1996-11-21 — Page 12

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Mr Albert Chan (in Chinese): Thank you Mr Governor, for your reply and I would also like to thank the Government for giving priority to resources consideration if it is proven necessary in the provision of fire services equipment.

Now in the course of the review, that may take some time and it will be some time before we have the findings. If in this review the fire services could first of all complete section on equipment, then would the Government first of all consider that instead of waiting for the completion of the entire report?

Governor: Well, if it becomes apparent very quickly in the review that there is a real problem of equipment, we'll of course have to address that very rapidly. But I think what we first of all need to do is to get the report, within the next fortnight. It may well be the case that, as happened with the Lan Kwai Fong tragedy at New Year 1992/93, it may well be the case that we will feel and the community will feel that there should be a full commission of enquiry under a judge. But I thought it was right, first of all, to get the facts as quickly as possible and if those facts suggest courses of action which we should take very rapidly, then we won't hesitate to do so.

Mrs Selina Chow (in Chinese): Thank you Mr President. First of all I would hope that the Governor would know this, that is about the Bill: there is a Bills Committee and we are sitting on that committee and this very morning the Chairman or the Convenor to the Bills Committee, Mr James To, concerning the branches and departments that work with us on the Bill, we have paid tribute to them because this is a very complex Bill and within a short period of time we managed to resolve many problems and we managed to come to some sort of a decision. And I just want to let you know, Mr Governor, that we did not have too much discussion before, we had an appropriate level of discussion and now the problems have been resolved satisfactorily. And I hope that by telling you this you would become more reassured.

About last night, just now the Governor said that when he was there last night there was an Operational Commander. I would like to know who that was. The reason why I ask this is this: because in the past when we had emergencies there was the Emergency Co-ordination Centre which was supposed to co-ordinate all disaster relief efforts because these efforts probably would involved more than one government department. And ever since June this year, it seems that the Emergency Co-ordination Centre is renamed the Emergency Monitoring and Support Centre.

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I would like to ask the Governor this question last night the disaster happened - whether the Emergency Centre played any part? If not, who was in overall charge of the entire rescue operation?