Prime minister released 1st ever Disaster Managment Plan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 June 2016 released the National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP). The plan aims to make India disaster resilient and reduce loss of lives.
• It is the first of its kind of national plan prepared in India. It emphasizes on a greater need for Information, Education and Communication activities to prepare communities to cope with disasters.
• The plan is based on:
• Understanding disaster risk,
• Improving disaster risk governance,
• Investing in disaster risk reduction (through structural and non-structural measures),
• Disaster preparedness, early warning and building back better in the aftermath of a disaster.
• It covers all phases of disaster management: prevention, mitigation, response and recovery.
• It provides for horizontal and vertical integration among all the agencies and departments of the government.
• The plan also spells out the roles and responsibilities of all levels of government right up to Panchayat and Urban Local Body level in a matrix format.
• The plan has a regional approach that will be beneficial for disaster management along with development planning.
• It is designed in such a way that it can be implemented in a scalable manner in all phases of disaster management.
• 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.
• It also provides a generalized framework for recovery and offers flexibility to assess a situation and build back better.