National Disaster Management Authority
The National Disaster Management Authority has been established under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. It is the apex body for disaster management in India, whose main function is to formulate policies, plans and guidelines for disaster management.But it has been seen that the National Disaster Management Authority has not got the expected success in relief and rescue operations during and after disasters.
The National Disaster Management Authority had to face many problems during the Uttarakhand tragedy in 2013, the Kashmir floods in 2014 or and Kerala flood the urban after math in Chennai (Tamil Nadu). The number of disaster response forces was also not adequate along with the paucity of necessary resources during the relief and rescue operations.
- There is also a lack of coordination at various levels during this period.
- To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the National Disaster Management Authority
- Special mechanism to promote coordination between National Disaster Management Authority, State and District Disaster Management Authority.Installation.
- Information technology can play an important role in this task.
- Emphasis will have to be given on the development of a transparent system for monitoring the progress of schemes implemented for disaster management. For this purpose, social audit or audit by independent parties should been couraged.
- Efforts should be made to improve the financial position of the National Disaster Management Authority. Debt management and international cooperation should be encouraged.
- Emphasis should be laid on filling the vacant posts and development of human resource.It is clear from the above analysis that the National Disaster Management Authority has an important role to play in mitigation of disasters,but the flaws in it have limited its potential benefits. Hence there is a need to rectify these short comings.
The National Disaster Management Authority is trying to deal with disasters through the following activities :-
- Use of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as required.
- To conduct education, training and awareness programmes.
- Implementation of strategies related to pre-disaster/during disaster, post-disaster time period, such as warning, rescue, rehabilitation, etc., through the state and district level system.
- CAG report that the programs being run for disaster preparedness and their mitigation have neither been successfully completed, nor the status of these programs has been informed about the national disaster.
- The management authority has accurate information.
- Apart from this, the Core Advisory Committee has not been constituted for the last three years.
