NDMA ramps up efforts, says govt caught off-guard

The government was caught off-guard and there was some delay in initiating relief and rescue measures as the local administration went missing, said National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) vice-chairperson MS Reddy. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 24, 2013, 24:27:17 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government was caught off-guard and there was some delay in initiating relief and rescue measures as the local administration went missing, said National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) vice-chairperson MS Reddy.

Speaking to HT, Reddy said as local administration was invisible in the hour of crisis, they had to “rush rescue personnel from other locations”. Bad weather in Dehradun and inaccessible roads also hampered the rescue operation.

“The first message came at 8.30pm on June 16. All the previous messages stated that the situation was normal. The personnel deployed for rescue took time to reach ground zero as roads were washed away and we had to wait for clear weather to utilise helicopter services,” he said.

Reddy was not categorical in stating that unplanned development in Uttarakhand accentuated the disaster but opined for restrictions on construction close to water-ways and respect for flood-plain management.

“We can blame unplanned development for the loss but one should not forget that four times natural rainfall poured in just 24 hours,” he added.

A big lesson learnt is that there should be an alert system for flash floods. The NDMA has already asked the Indian Meteorological Department and Central Water Commission officials, which say it is possible, to submit a proposal.

Reddy said there is a need to leverage science and technology for complete disaster management. “We need to change mindset of local authorities,” he said.

The authority will also be writing to the Uttarakhand government to put in place a system to regulate pilgrims visiting four dhams based on a carrying capability studies and similar to one for Amarnath Yatra.

He added the NDMA had been able to implement the disaster mitigation plans in Assam and Bihar and they have worked to reduce casualties.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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