Ajit Seth said to be the front-runner for the post of vice-chairman of NDMA

NEW DELHI: Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth is said to be the front-runner for becoming the vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which will be revamped later this month. NDMA has been headless since June after its members were asked to resign by the government.

Rules have been recently modified to downgrade the post of vicechairman, NDMA to the status of a Cabinet Secretary rather than a Cabinet minister. Seth’s tenure as the Cabinet Secretary was extended by the new government in June for another six months or till further orders.

"There may not be a better choice than Seth for heading the revamped NDMA. He has handled the recent floods in Jammu & Kashmir and the Uttarakhand tragedy as the Cabinet Secretary and has the requisite experience. The final call, however, will be of the prime minister who is the Chairman of NDMA as well," a home ministry official told ET.

Seth, a 1974 batch officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, is the seniormost serving bureaucrat in the country and was chosen as the Cabinet Secretary by the UPA government on June 14, 2011, for two years. His tenure was extended by the UPA in 2013 for one year and the BJP government, upon coming to power, has also given him a sixmonth extension.

The prime minister is believed to be impressed with Seth’s capabilities. NDMA is expected to get at least three more members, who will get pay and status alike a secretarylevel officer rather than a minister of state as earlier.

Senior bureaucrats or private persons with experience in disaster management are expected to be designated for these posts by the home ministry in consultation with the prime minister in an effort to not reduce the NDMA to a parking lot for retired bureaucrats.

This will be in line with a report submitted by the present additional secretary to the prime minister and former NDMA secretary PK Mishra, in 2013 to the UPA government to revamp the NDMA.