Union Home Minister Amit Shah on June 13 asked States to prepare a disaster management plan in areas where seven new nuclear installations are to become operational. He asked the States to prepare a road map in conjunction with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
Mr. Shah said the NDMA had visited seven power plant sites where nuclear power plants were coming up and strict protocols had been sent to the States for rescuing people in case of any emergency.
Mr. Shah chaired a meeting on disaster management with State Ministers. He also announced three major schemes for disaster management worth over ₹8000 crore. He said a ₹5,000-crore project had been allocated to expand and modernise fire services in States.
A ₹2,500-crore project was proposed for the seven most populous metros — Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune — to reduce the risk of urban flooding, Mr. Shah said.
The Minister said a ₹825-crore National Landslide Risk Mitigation Scheme had been planned in 17 States and union territories for landslide mitigation.
He said workshops have been organised in 23 States for hot weather conditions. The minister stated that that suggestions have been made by some States to give compensation to the farmers and the government will certainly look into this. He said that the States should also increase their budgetary provision for this.
He asked all the states to adopt the Model Fire Bill and bring a uniform law across the States. The preparation of District Disaster Management Plans in 87 districts of 8 states is still pending, they should be completed at the earliest. He said that the State level action plan for thunderstorm and lightning has been forwarded by the Centre and so far more than 25 States and Union Territories have not shared it with the Centre. He said that we should make efforts so that no life is lost because of lightning and therefore all these 25 states and union territories should move forward in this direction.
State-level action plan on cold wave and fog have been sent by the Centre but 16 States and UTs were yet to prepare the action plan. The Incident Response System has been implemented in 20 States but 16 States are yet to implement it.
He added that 271 wetlands have been identified in the Northeast by ISRO for flood management. Earlier, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) used to provide three days advance forecast of rainfall and floods and now it was being issued 5 days in advance which provides extra time for rescue efforts. Directions have been given to issue it 7 days in advance by next year. He added that floods have been controlled by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change by planting saplings on the banks of 13 major rivers which are prone to floods.
