National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) held a meeting to review the progress made by the states in implementing various disaster management activities. Delivering the inaugural address, M. Shashidar Reddy, vice chairman, NDMA appreciated the states for their earnest attempts to take up disaster preparedness and mitigation measures under different projects and programmes and stated that the disaster management institutions constituted at various levels need to be strengthened to carry out their legal mandates as envisaged in DM Act, 2005.
Reddy requested all state governments to prepare detailed disaster management action plans and implement the action points identified in the guidelines issued by NDMA after long process of consultation with different state governments. He drew attention of state authorities towards mainstreaming of disaster management into development planning which would ensure desired action in this direction and enable the country to emerge as a disaster resilient nation.
Referring to his visit in Orissa in 2007, Reddy appreciated the efforts made by the state Government of Orissa in conducting mock drills on cyclone in most parts of the state and urged the states to follow the model for mock drills in the entire state.
Reddy also made a special mention regarding the grant-in-aid under 13th Finance Commission for capacity building within the administrative machinery for better handling of disaster response and for preparation of district and state level disaster management plans as envisaged under the Disaster Management Act of 2005.
He urged the state governments to come out with disaster management perspective plan for effective utilisation of grant-in-aid for capacity building and disaster response. He also mentioned that NDMA is working with NIDM to develop appropriate training manuals, modules and guidelines which could be used by states for imparting training to various stakeholders particularly on subjects like post disaster recovery, damage and need assessment, integrating disaster risk reduction into health, housing and environment sectors etc. to ensure capacity building on disaster.
