Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 29
Hailing the work done by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and its agencies, Union Home Minister Amit Shah today said efforts should now be made to develop indigenous equipment to combat disasters in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
“Frequency of disasters has been increasing by leaps and bounds due to global warming, leading to forest fires. We all need to prepare for it,” said Shah during his first public event after taking charge of the ministry.
He added that it was important to quickly develop better resilience and capability against disasters given that India was much prone to catastrophes owing to its varied topography and expanse.
The minister was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day annual conference organised here by the NDRF on capacity building of state disaster response forces (SDRFs) in consultation with home guards, civil defence and fire services.
Shah said disaster management was largely ignored in the country before 2000. “It was in 2001, after the devastating earthquake in Gujarat, that then Chief Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of the Gujarat Disaster Management Department. From there, work on disaster management in the country started in totality,” he added.
Shah said, “We have covered a long distance on disaster management, but still have to undertake a long journey to make India a leader in disaster response. We have shifted from relief-centric approach to preparedness, mitigation, response and reconstruction.”
He emphasised that they should be well-equipped and prepared to help neighbouring countries in case of disasters. He also called the NDRF to work on resource profiling of states and union territories and urged the stakeholders to work on chain of command for effective disaster response.
At the event, NDRF Director General (DG) SN Pradhan said his force would be able to have its presence in virtually every part of the country by August and they were also working to have a women personnel combat component in every unit.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2KP7Jkc
via Today’s News Headlines
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