Speaking on the occasion, president of the International Public Relations Society, Zelma Lazarus said the first thing that crisis called for was proper planning.

Underlining the need for appointment of a team for crisis management, she said proper policies should be devised for preventing such crisis, expert opinion should be sought, and the plan put down in writing. For proper planning of communication in crisis, Lazarus said, ``Be prepared to capture early initiative by rapidly establishing the company as single authoritative source of information about what has gone wrong and what steps the organisation is taking to remedy the situation''.

She said there was a need to set up an emergency press centre to take incoming calls from media and the crisis management team should be headed by a senior PR professional. She said for tackling crisis it was important to set up telephone hotlines to cope with the additional calls and to identify the people affected and for redressal of their grievances.

For communicating at the time of crisis it is essential to develop a wide variety of information sources and to take care and use language that can be clearly demonstrated, she added.

Delivering the inaugural address, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Jaspal Singh said, ``Crisis communication is not only seen at the corporate levels but the effects of crisis communication are also seen during day-to-day work''.

Addressing the gathering, Editor (Gujarat) The Indian Express, Derick D'Sa said, ``Communication for newspapers is to have both sides of the story, answer the five basic questions and make the reader aware of the facts.'

In his address, Secretary Information and Broadcasting, P K Laheri said, ``The government machinery is not always in a position to give the facts then and there during crisis.'' While P S Rao of ONGC said, crisis communication should be well-planned and properly managed and not misguide or conceal facts, Ajit Pathak, president of PRSI of Western division, said effective communication at the time of crisis was the real test for PR persons.