A Complete News Magazine on National Security

‘NDMA’s Unsatisfactory Performance’

Thanks for your November 2007 issue which carries several interesting and revealing articles. However, I would like to bring to your attention that the performance of the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authoity) in this year's floods has been anything but satisfactory. We have had the worst floods in living memory. Nearly three thousand people died. In Bihar alone, ten million people were rendered homeless and were forced to move to road and rail embankments. A total of four helicopters and nine army boats were made available to provide relief and rescue. We have created a top heavy organisation which has no idea of what is happening at ground level. The NDMA or any of its newly created disaster units was nowhere in evidence. The same story was repeated in Assam which had three rounds of floods. Since the armed forces in any case get involved, I would suggest that the Corps of Engineers be made the nodal agency for disaster management. They have the resources distributed all over the country. Each Command Chief Engineer should be responsible for his geographical area and should earmark resources which are available in plenty. Certain specialist equipment should be authorised so that troops can also be trained for the task. There should be no hesitation in using the resources of the armed forces for providing relief and succour to the citizens of the country. Air effort should also be coordinated by the command CEs since the air force cannot operate in isolation. The NDMA can continue to pursue policy matters and coordination at the national level. The eight units formed for disaster relief are obviously not enough for a country of our size. With global warming and glaciers melting, the floods are going to get worse and there is an urgent need to tackle this issue in a long term perspective.

Col Pavan Nair, VSM (retd), Pune

Search		Welcome Guest
		REGISTER / LOGIN