National Disaster Management Authority awaits reconstitution after staff resign a month ago

NEW DELHI: At a time when large parts of the country are threatened by drought, the north-eastern state of Assam is struggling with floods and the seismically active Himalayan belt has experienced over 100 tremors in the past few months, there is no central agency to deal with any kind of disaster.

As of today, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) – set up after the 2004 tsunami—stands dismantled with its vice chairman and seven members made to resign by the ministry of home affairs ( MHA) a month ago.

In case of an emergency, there is no central body that can plan and coordinate relief operations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the chairman of the NDMA, is out on a foreign tour. Last year around this time, NDMA member VK Duggal was sent to Uttarakhand as the nodal officer to coordinate relief and rescue operations in the wake of devastating floods in the state.

Modi wants the body to be streamlined and restructured based on the recommendations of a task force that reviewed the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

The task force was headed by PK Mishra, who is now Modi’s additional principal secretary, a post specially created for him in the PMO. Modi has asked the MHA to study and implement the report that had been put on the backburner by the previous UPA government.

"Modi wants it to be implemented at the earliest," disclosed a senior home ministry official.

If the recommendations are implemented, the NDMA will become a leaner, more professional and lethal organisation with more teeth. The National Executive Committee (NEC), headed by the Union Home Secretary, will be disbanded.