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Amit Shah reviews preparedness to deal with floods, issues directions
A large area of India is prone to flood in which Ganga and the Brahmaputra are main flood basins and Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are most flood prone states, a government statement after home minister Amit Shah’s meeting said.
NEW DELHI: At a meeting to review the preparedness of agencies to deal with the flood situation over the next few months, Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday directed officials to continue to strengthen coordination between the central and state agencies to have a permanent system for forecasting of floods and rise in water levels in major catchment areas of the country, an official statement issued after the meeting said.
Shah also nudged government agencies to publicise mobile applications related to weather forecasting such as Umang, Rain Alarm and Damini that have been developed by the Indian Meteorological Department. Damini app, for instance, tracks movement of thunderstorms and sends out alerts three hours ahead of lightning strikes.
In recent years, lightning has been identified as the single most killer in the country as compared to all other natural disasters. It kills an average of 2,000 to 2,500 people annually, according to a note on the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s website.
Shah also directed officials to formulate standard operating procedures (SOPs) immediately to broadcast IMD warnings on lightning strikes to the public via TV, FM Radio, SMS and other mediums, the government statement said.
At the meeting, Shah also reviewed the long-term measures for formulation of a comprehensive and overarching policy to mitigate the perennial flood problems of the country.
He asked the Jal Shakti ministry to work out a mechanism for desilting large dams, which will help in increasing dam storage capacity and flood control. The IMD and the Central Water Commission should use state-of-the-art technology and satellite data for more accurate weather and flood predictions, Shah said, according to the statement.
He also directed the National Disaster Response Force NDRF) to immediately hold meetings with the heads of the SDRF in flood prone states.
A large area in India is prone to flood in which Ganga and the Brahmaputra are main flood basins and Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are most flood prone states.
