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Government to conduct annual inter-state disaster management drills: Amit Shah
Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday announced that the central government will conduct inter-state disaster management mock drills annually. The announcement was made at the relief commissioners and Disaster Response Forces Conference held in the national Capital.
Addressing officials and personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in New Delhi, Shah emphasised the government's commitment to integrating the Start-Up India initiative with the advancement of disaster relief technologies.
'The current decade will be considered as the transformative decade for India in disaster response. We made strides in the last decade in terms of capacity, pace, efficiency and accuracy in disaster management,' the Union home minister said, adding that the government has moved away from the previously adopted 'relief-oriented' approach.
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Speaking about the importance of coordinated drills, Shah stated, 'There are several disasters that require inter-state mock drills. We cannot succeed in this without the assistance of the state. Therefore, the states should brainstorm on this.'
He highlighted the progress made in disaster preparedness, asserting that the government had moved from minimum casualties at the start of the decade to achieving zero-casualty outcomes.
Referring to Cyclone Biparjoy in 2023, which struck off the coast of Gujarat, Shah said it recorded no fatalities.
'When I say zero casualties, that means there were no deaths of even an animal in the cyclone,' he added.
He urged state and Union Territory relief commissioners to formulate district-level disaster management strategies within 90 days.
'It will be impossible to fight against the disaster until there is a district-level disaster management strategy in place. Commissioners should devise a strategy to protect from lightning and share it with the Centre within 90 days,' Shah said, urging officials to implement the Centre's disaster response guidelines, including the incident response system.
Commenting on preparedness for extreme heat events, he stressed the importance of real-time response frameworks. 'Whenever the heat wave begins, we must be prepared before hand,' he added.
Shah further stated that disaster response efforts under the current government had become 'more proactive than reactive.'
'We made attempts for financial empowerment and an increase in the government budget for disaster and relief. We also ensured design-oriented institutional empowerment, as well as structural empowerment. Adding all this, we have accepted a multidimensional approach as a policy factor,' he said.
