Government calls for synergised efforts to handle disasters

NEW DELHI: The government has come out with a ‘Blue Book’ on dealing with major cyclones like Hudhud, saying a “Synergized Standard Operation Procedure (SSOP)” must be developed as there is still lack of coordination among the agencies dealing with disaster management.

“As a result, the same targeted group gets different warnings from different government agencies leading to confusion in decision making. For example, while Indian Meteorological Department would be issuing coastal inundation warning due to cyclone, central water commission would be issuing the flood warning for the river catchment experiencing the heavy rainfall due to cyclone.

Similarly, SOP of the district or state or centre should be in tune with the SOP for early warning by designated agencies. There is a need for inter-agency and intraagency SSOP,” the Blue Book said. This follows the report of a committee formed on the directions of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) last year to learn from the experience of Cyclone Hudhud that had hit Andhra Pradesh coast last October.

“After each major disaster, all the concerned stakeholders should meet together and bring out lessons learnt from the disaster. The exercise should not be a fault finding one, but needs to be conducted to draw lessons for better preparedness in future...care should be taken to see that the call for ‘zero casualty’ should not lead to artificial suppression of data,” the book says.