PAC Red Flags Serious Gaps in India's Firewall Against Natural Disasters
Nidhi Sharma
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New Delhi:
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The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has pointed out serious flaws in disaster preparedness in the country and has called for the home ministry and state governments to finalise plans to deal with disasters on a priority basis.The PAC, examining the issue, has taken a grim view of the delay in setting up mandatory institutions for preparing disaster management plans in its final report that would be tabled in the winter session of Parliament, according to sources.
The PAC report points out that the National Plan for Disaster Management, which is already nine years overdue, has still not been finalised and is awaiting approval.
Taking the considerable delay in formation of National Disaster Mitigation Fund seriously, it has asked the home ministry to prepare a Cabinet note at the earliest.
The committee also said the mandatory institutional setup required to monitor states' progress, utilisation of funds, and preparation of disaster management plans has not been put in place.
PAC said that the National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the executive committee of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), took seven years to finalise the National Plan on Disaster Management, mainly because of inadequate number of meetings. NEC was constituted in September 2006 and was supposed to meet at least once in three months.However, it met only three times in three years in the beginning.
At state level, too, disaster management plans have not been completed, PAC said in its report. Till 2014, only 20 states had submitted their disaster management plans.
The committee wants the home ministry to urge states to finalise their plans and also expedite the finalisation of the national plan. PAC has expressed “shock“ at the functioning of NDMA and the pace of work at the nodal authority for disaster management. For example, NDMA's second advisory committee, which has experts in the field of disaster management, was initiated in June 2010 but could not be completed till 2014, it said.
PAC has directed MHA to finalise the committee and fill all posts. It has also suggested that timelines be fixed for such projects, especially in key institutions like NDMA.
The committee has also asked the government to include heat waves and manmade disasters like stampedes in the list of disasters.
ET VIEW
Fix This Man Made Disaster
There is something downright unholy about disaster relief being crippled not by any shortage of funds but by funds left unutilised.This shows apathy of disastrous proportions. Any rehabilitation package or relief scheme must come with a progress report that includes fund targets and whether they have reached their destinations. Information technology must be used to track the trajectory of these funds, making it possible to reallocate them transparently. To have relief money rot is a scandal that has to be fixed retrospectively as well as before another natural calamity.
The PAC report points out that the National Plan for Disaster Management, which is already nine years overdue, has still not been finalised and is awaiting approval.
Taking the considerable delay in formation of National Disaster Mitigation Fund seriously, it has asked the home ministry to prepare a Cabinet note at the earliest.
The committee also said the mandatory institutional setup required to monitor states' progress, utilisation of funds, and preparation of disaster management plans has not been put in place.
PAC said that the National Executive Committee (NEC), which is the executive committee of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), took seven years to finalise the National Plan on Disaster Management, mainly because of inadequate number of meetings. NEC was constituted in September 2006 and was supposed to meet at least once in three months.However, it met only three times in three years in the beginning.
At state level, too, disaster management plans have not been completed, PAC said in its report. Till 2014, only 20 states had submitted their disaster management plans.
The committee wants the home ministry to urge states to finalise their plans and also expedite the finalisation of the national plan. PAC has expressed “shock“ at the functioning of NDMA and the pace of work at the nodal authority for disaster management. For example, NDMA's second advisory committee, which has experts in the field of disaster management, was initiated in June 2010 but could not be completed till 2014, it said.
PAC has directed MHA to finalise the committee and fill all posts. It has also suggested that timelines be fixed for such projects, especially in key institutions like NDMA.
The committee has also asked the government to include heat waves and manmade disasters like stampedes in the list of disasters.
ET VIEW
Fix This Man Made Disaster
There is something downright unholy about disaster relief being crippled not by any shortage of funds but by funds left unutilised.This shows apathy of disastrous proportions. Any rehabilitation package or relief scheme must come with a progress report that includes fund targets and whether they have reached their destinations. Information technology must be used to track the trajectory of these funds, making it possible to reallocate them transparently. To have relief money rot is a scandal that has to be fixed retrospectively as well as before another natural calamity.
Source: Economic Times, 19-09-2015
