Prime Minister releases National Disaster Management Plan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) to make India disaster resilient and reduce loss of lives.
The first of its kind of national plan is based on the four priority themes of the “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-30”. They are
(i) Understanding disaster risk (ii) Improving disaster risk governance (iii) Investing in disaster risk reduction (through structural and non-structural measures) and (iv) Disaster preparedness, early warning and building back better in the aftermath of a disaster.
Salient Features of the Plan

• The plan covers all phases of disaster management: prevention, response, mitigation and recovery.
• It provides for vertical and horizontal integration among all the Government agencies and departments.
• It also spells out the roles and responsibilities of all levels of Government right up to Urban Local Body (ULB) and Panchayat level in a matrix format.
• The plan has a regional approach, which will be beneficial for disaster management and also for development planning.
• It has been designed in such a way that it can be implemented in all phases of disaster management in a scalable manner.
• The plan also identifies major activities such as early warning, medical care, information dissemination, fuel, search and rescue, transportation, 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.
• It emphasizes on a greater need for Information, Education and Communication activities to prepare communities to cope with disasters.
• The plan incorporates provisions for strengthening disaster risk governance and lays down six thematic areas.
• They are integrated and mainstream disaster risk reduction, promoting participatory approach, capacity development, working with elected representatives, grievance redress mechanism and promoting quality standards, certification and awards for disaster risk management.

Background
The National Disaster Management Plan has been mandated Section 11 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. As per the Act, the national plan must lay down the guidelines for preparation of state-level disaster management plans as well as plans by each Central ministry and department.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2016