New Delhi :Under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs on “Disaster Management” was held at Kevadiya, Gujarat today. The meeting was attended by Ministers of State for Home Affairs, Shri NityanandRai, Shri Ajay Kumar Mishra, Shri NishithPramanik and Union Home Secretary, along with senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, NDMA and NDRF.
Shri Amit Shah said that the present government under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi has adopted a holistic approach towards disaster management and has been made relief-centric, early warning-centric, proactive and early preparedness-based. He said that earlier the country had only relief-centric approach towards disaster management which did not involve minimizing the loss of life and property, but this approach has changed after Shri NarendraModi became the Prime Minister.
Shri Shah informed the members of the committee that the budgetary provision for disaster management has been increased by 122 percent in the last eight years by Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi, which shows the priority given by Shri Modi towards disaster management. He said that under the leadership of Shri Modi, the UnionGovernment has given priority to disaster management and climate change in the last eight years.
The Union Home Minister said that the Ministry of Home Affairs, in collaboration with NDMA and NDRF, is playing an important role in helping the States and Union Territories by providing logistics and financial assistance and coordinating response and relief measures during natural calamities. Union Home Minister said that to tackle with disasters on priority basis, the spirit of public participation imbibed under AapdaMitraYojana launched at the local level is very important because till the time people do not join it, the work of disaster management does not reach the bottom.
Shri Amit Shah said that the concept of disaster management in India has been in existence since ancient times and in ancient times, it was taken care of at the time of establishment of cities. He said that India is at the forefront of the world in the field of disaster management and by the completion of the Centenary of Independence in 2047, India will further strengthen its position in this field, for this the Ministry of Home Affairs, NDMA and NDRF are making full efforts. The Ministry of Home Affairs, NDMA and NDRF are working diligentlyto reach this goal. The Home Minister said that an early-warning system has been developed through innovative technologies such as SMS, mobile app and portal, so that early warning of natural calamity can be conveyed to the people. He said that the ‘Common Alerting Protocol’ project is being implemented across the country to strengthen the last mile spread of early warnings.
Shri Shah said that due to the successful efforts of the government, the loss of life and property during the various calamities that have occurred in the last few years have been brought down to the minimum level. He said that its importance can be understood from the fact that around 10,000 people lost their lives in the super cyclone in 1999, while in contrast only a few people lost their lives in recent cyclones.
The Union Home Minister informed that the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) are being deputed to States immediately after they are affected by a severe calamity, without waiting for the memorandum from the States. He also informed that for the first time mitigation funds have been constituted at the National and State level. The central government has also allocated Rs 13,693 crore for the National Disaster Mitigation Fund and Rs 32,031 crore for the State Disaster Mitigation Fund for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is being strengthened, modernized and expanded throughout the country.
Shri Amit Shah also apprised the committee members about the important projects initiated in the field of disaster management. In order to reduce the suffering caused to the coastal community by cyclones and other calamities, the Modi government is implementing the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) in 8 coastal states with a total outlay of Rs,crore. Also, under the ‘Aapdamitra’ program for capacity building of the community, 1lakh community volunteers in 350 disaster prone districts are being trained for disaster response and preparedness.
Shri Shah said that best practices from all over the world are being brought to India and along with this, India is providing best practices in the field of disaster management to the world. He said that the Government of India has prepared a pre-disaster preparedness protocol in the last eight years. Shri Shah talked about including it as a subject in 12th and graduation level education to sensitize the children to various aspects of disaster management.
Shri Amit Shah said that there are many challenges before India in disaster management, but at this point of time we are in a position that we can prepare to deal with the next phase of these challenges. Targets have been fixed for every five years and every year till 2047, for which the Ministry is working with full readiness.
The Union Home Minister requested members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee to give their suggestions for detailed reforms in the Disaster Management Act, 2005. He said that on the lines of NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose AapdaPrabandhanPuraskar at the national level, the States can also give awards in the field of disaster management and can also send suggestions for the names of individuals and institutions for the award to the Centre. The members thanked the Union Home Minister for raising an important topic like ‘Disaster Management’ in the meeting of the Advisory Committee and gave their suggestions.
The Members of Parliamantwho attended the meeting of the committee were Shri NK Premachandran, Shri Kunwar Danish Ali, Professor (Dr.) Ram Shankar Katheria, Shri CM Ramesh, Shri Rajendra Agarwal, Smt. Locket Chatterjee, Shri Vijay Kumar Hansdak, Shri NeerajShekhar, Shri P PChoudhary, Shri KC Ramamurthy, Shri Naba (Hira) Kumar Sarania, Shri K Ravindra Kumar and Shri K GorantiaMadhav.
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