Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will preside over a special meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday to review the country's disaster preparedness.
The meeting, which will be attended by officials of the NDMA, the Atomic Energy Regulation Board (AERB), the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and other concerned agencies, will review issues related to preparedness for nuclear disaster, earthquakes and tsunami and recommend measures needed to strengthen the existing mechanisms.
According to official sources, the NDMA will present a nationwide exercise calendar to prepare, at various levels, for major disasters such as radiation leaks, earthquakes or terrorist attacks.
In the first phase, an exercise along the lines of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) National Exercise Programme (NEP) has been planned. It will cover the States of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand.
A project for the installation of dosimeters — instruments that measure the effects of environmental hazards — in 1,000 police stations across 35 cities with population of over one million has already been prepared and the strength of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), including specially trained personnel, is to be increased.
The meeting will review guidelines on the management of nuclear and radiological emergencies already issued by the NDMA. Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) response and rescue preparedness is also on the agenda.
The sources said the NDMA had prepared draft guidelines to link bank finance for housing projects to National Building Codes that stipulate safety measures, including earthquake-resistant construction. The Reserve Bank of India has circulated the guidelines to banks, suggesting that housing loans be made incumbent upon compliance with building codes. The meeting is expected to dwell upon guidelines on bank finance for all infrastructure projects to disaster preparedness. The move would be of particular relevance for power, ports and airports, which are the worst-hit by calamities.
