Vinod Bhat
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah chaired a high levelmeeting in New Delhi to review the preparedness of flood management in the country. Union Home Minister also reviewed the long-term measures being taken to mitigate the menace of floods in the country and the steps taken on the decisions made in the meeting held last year.
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation also discussed the new technologies adopted by all agencies for flood management and expansion of their network in the meeting. He emphasized on maximum use of space technology by various central agencies for flood control and water management.
Shri Amit Shah said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India’s Disaster management is moving forward with a ‘Zero Casualty Approach’. He directed National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to coordinate with the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) for ensuring dissemination of Early Warning alerts to the grassroots level and further appealed to all the States and Union Territories for timely implementation of the advisories issued by NDMA for flood management. He asked NDMA and NDRF to work towards efficient flood management in full coordination with the states.
Union Home Minister, while appreciating Central Water Commission (CWC) and India Meteorological Department (IMD) for increasing the time limit regarding issuance of flood forecasting/advisory, emphasised on increasing the accuracy level of forecasts. Shri Shah said that the flood monitoring centers of the CWC should be in accordance with our requirements and of international standards. Shri Shah advised Jal Shakti Ministry, NDMA and National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) to closely monitor the glacial lakes and take timely steps in the event of any type of outburst.
Home Minister emphasized that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH)/National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) should work with the States to ensure uniform design changes in the state and district highways also, so that highways drainage system becomes integral part of the designs of road construction to deal with inundation of roads, in case of heavy rains. Further, NDMA should also coordinate with the state authorities for coordination between central agencies and states for flood preparedness and mitigation.
The Home Minister stressed on increasing the forest area in the Narmada river area and said that if this experiment is successful, similar efforts will be made in the areas of other rivers as well. He said that this will help in reviving the river basin, reduce soil erosion and also tackle the emerging problem of low rainfall in the region. Shri Amit Shah said that new options should be explored using technology for robust flood management measures in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Referring to the increasing incidence of flooding in urban areas, Shri Amit Shah directed all central agencies to take necessary, timely action for flood control in these cities and prepare a comprehensive plan for flood management in big cities. Shri Shah highlighted the importance of wetland rejuvenation and afforestation measures to deal with the emerging trend of heavy rainfall in short periods during monsoon. He advised the Ministry of Jal Shakti to work on improving the condition of wetlands in the Brahmaputra basin, which will be important for flood prevention as well as economic and tourism activities.
Shri Amit Shah suggested that the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA), IMD and other departments including NRSC should jointly organize such a conference in which experts can be invited to discuss floods, space and other aspects. Shri Shah said that in 2014, India was far behind in the field of meteorology, but today under the leadership of Modi ji we are at par with developed countries, now we have to become No.1.
During the meeting departments including IMD, CWC made detailed presentations. The Ministries/departments concerned also informed about the action taken on the instructions given by the Union Home Minister during the flood review meeting held last year. They also apprised Union Home Minister about their preparedness for the current monsoon season and future action plan.The Home Minister expressed satisfaction over the preparations made by all the departments. He appealed to work in coordination with all the departments towards creating software that can deal with extreme weather with the contribution of all the departments.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, Shri Amit Shah accords highest priority on preparedness measure to reduce the impact of floods and other natural calamities. Every year, Union Home Minister review the flood preparedness measures and on his directions, a number of initiatives have been undertaken, including increasing the advance rainfall and flood forecasts by IMD and CWC from 3 to 7 days and improved parameters for heatwave forecast.
Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Shri CR Patil, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Nityanand Rai, Union Home Secretary, Secretaries of Ministriesand Departments of River Developmentand Ganga Rejuvenation, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Road Transport and Highways, Chairperson Railway Board, Members and Heads of Departments of NDMA, Directors Generals of NDRF and IMD, Chairman NHAI and CWC, and senior officials from NRSC andother departments concerned were present in the meeting.
