DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN SHORT

#NATIONAL DISATER MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY

• National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was established according to disaster management Act NDMA Act 2005 in year 2005 with the Prime Minister of India as chairperson.
• The NDMA may have no more than nine members including a Vice-Chairperson. The tenure of the members of the NDMA shall be five years.
• The NDMA is responsible for "laying down the policies, plans and guidelines for disaster management" and to ensure "timely and effective response to disaster".
• The vice chairman has a rank of cabinet minister and other members have rank of union minister for state.

#NDRF - National Disaster Response Force

• The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is a disaster response agency under National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) created by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
• It was established in 2009 in Delhi, for disaster management and specialised response to naturaland man-made disasters.
• Functioning at state and central-level under the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
•  it consists of 10 battalions of Central Armed Police Forces, including three each of the BSF, CRPF, and two each of the CISF and ITBP.
•  Each battalion will provide 18 self-contained specialist search and rescue teams of 45 personnel each including engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and medical/paramedics. The total strength of each battalion is approximately 1,149.
• All the ten battalions are being equipped and trained to combat all natural disasters including four battalions in combating radiological, nuclear, biological and chemical disasters.
  
  PROBLEMS FACED BY NDRF
•  NDRF has just 18 headquarters staff — another 83 personnel campared to National Security Guard, which hasn’t been deployed in combat since the 26/11 terror attacks six years ago, has 400 headquarters staff. Its chief has the power to requisition aircraft to move personnel in an emergency.
• The director-general of the NDRF does not have that authority.
• During kashmir floods NDRF had to wait for the Home Ministry for seeking air support fromthe armed forces — leading delays of 48 hours .
• Part of the problem is the NDRF does not have a full-time boss. Even though the National Disaster Management Act provides for a director-general — reporting to the National Disaster Management Authority — the MHA sanctioned an additional director-general, using a vacancy created from the ranks of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
• In the last seven years, the NDRF has had 15 directors-general.
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  Lack of logistics - In 2008, the MHA had sanctioned Rs 290 crore to equip eight battalions with a 310-piece United Nations-recommended disaster-response kit after which they are not updated. 
• No permenant training facility
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  Plans drawn up by the NDMA, in consultation with top international and national experts. They specify exactly how disasters ought to be dealt with at the state and district levels and what kind of infrastructure needed at state and district level. These plans, however, have never been notified by the MHA through the Gazette of India. So there is no obligation on states to implement, or even consider, them. Funds flowed to states for creating infrastructure, but with no framework for implementing best practices.
• Therefore, the district disaster plan for Udhampur, in Jammu and Kashmir, had no instructions for what to do if communications were knocked out by an earthquake or large flood, nor how resources were to be mobilised in a calamity.
• Srinagar authorities had never once rehearsed for a disaster.
• Legally, the NDMA has no authority to independently implement schemes; the MHA controls funding and execution. The NDMA thus remains just an advisory body, sending out missives few states pay attention to. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was the chair of the NDMA, attended only three meetings, records show — and never intervened to push forward plans drawn up bearing his name. Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has removed the organisation’s entire board — and there is no word when one might be appointed.
• The natural disaster such as cyclone that occurs in one of the relativley poorer state liike orissa is illequipped to tackle disaster  at state level.
  
  
  
  

HOW DISATER MANAGED IN INDIA