 "Wading into a crisis")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday released the India's first ever National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP), which aims to make the country disaster resilient and reduce loss of lives.
The plan is based on the four priority themes of the 'Sendai Framework', which includes understanding disaster risk, improving disaster risk governance, investing in disaster risk reduction, disaster preparedness, early warning and building back better in the aftermath of a disaster.
The plan covers all the phases of a disaster management such as prevention, mitigation, response and recovery, and provides for an integration among all the agencies and departments of the Government.
It also spells out the roles and responsibilities of all levels of the government right up to the Panchayat and the Urban Local Body level in a matrix format and boasts of a regional approach, which will be beneficial not only for a disaster management but also for a development planning.
It is designed in such a way that it can be implemented in a scalable manner in all phases of a disaster management and it also identifies major activities such as early warning, information dissemination, medical care, fuel, transportation, search and rescue, evacuation, etc to serve as a checklist for agencies responding to a disaster.
The plan also provides a generalized framework for recovery and offers flexibility to assess a situation and build back better.
To prepare communities to cope with disasters, it emphasizes on a greater need for Information, Education and Communication activities.
Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh, Minster of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, and senior officers of the Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Home Affairs and National Disaster Management Authority were present during the function.
