Besides other crucial issues of preparedness, management after a cyclone strikes, and rehabilitation, insurance should be built into policies to help families affected, Chief Secretary S.P. Tucker has said.
Delivering the keynote address at the maiden joint disaster management exercise, Prakampana-2016, coordinated by the Eastern Naval Command on Tuesday, Mr. Tucker said that in the U.S. 8-10 per cent of funds went into insurance and in India not even one per cent damages were covered. Families find it difficult to survive when earnings of generations were lost in a calamity, he said.
The three-day exercise is being carried out on the direction of the Prime Minister to the Navy to coordinate a large-scale disaster relief exercise.
Diviseema experienceMr. Tucker spoke on how responses to disasters changed over the last four decades, with technology and precise forecast playing a key role. When the Diviseema cyclone struck killing 13,000 people, the Collector came to know about it only the next day.
He termed the response to Hudhud cyclone as new and emerging practice with none knowing what to do.
“With the Chief Minister himself monitoring, issues had been addressed, and now we are rewriting some practices in the blue book under the instructions of the Prime Minister,” Mr. Tucker said.
Mumbai had received 105 cm of rain in 2005, which was unheard of, and Hyderabad cannot take more than 50 cm of rain, Mr. Tucker said, adding that new urbanisation problems were cropping up because of encroachments and escape of water being blocked.
The Chief Secretary recalled that though Kadapa had received once-in-10,000-year rain in 2009, it was managed with clockwork precision with a number of things going “our way.” It did not attract worldwide attention because only three persons died.
HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said allotment of land to establish a permanent NDRF unit in Visakhapatnam was being processed. Since the State government had to act first in facing disasters, Andhra Pradesh had also set up 600-strong SDRF on the lines of the national force. Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the ENC Vice Admiral H.C.S. Bisht, in his address, underlined the importance of integrated, joint, and synergised approach to disaster management.
Sometimes, delay in extending aid would lead to more loss of life than the disaster itself, he pointed out, adding the Chennai floods underlined seemingly routine circumstances turning into disasters.
Member of NDMA Lt. Gen. N.C. Marwah said that the way Hudhud was dealt with had turned out to be a success story and quoted by the UN at the international fora.
He said risk insurance found place in the National Disaster Management Plan released by the Prime Minister on June 1.
Deputy Assistant Chief, Integrated Defence Staff, Brig. Vinod Dutta, and Disaster Commissioner, NDMA, Comdt. S.S. Sindhu, made presentations on ‘Role of Armed forces in disaster management’ and ‘Disaster management initiatives’.
