Do disaster damage survey along with states: Panel

The Parliamentary panel observed that there is always a disparity between the assessment of damages by states and by the ministry of home affairs.

New Delhi: A Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs has suggested to the central government to do the preliminary damage assessment of all calamities jointly with the state government to avert differences in assessment of the damages. It also suggested that the central study team should make a preliminary visit to the disaster affected areas, within a week of the disaster for quick and initial assessment of the damage.

The committee observed that there is always a disparity between the assessment of damages by states and by the ministry of home affairs.

"The reason for the same could be that the central study team are sent for an assessment of damage and casualties months after the occurrence of disaster and by the time that teams reach the disaster affected areas, the sign of disaster are on the verge of diminishing," the parliamentary committee said.

Home Ministry officials, on the other hand, said that state government generally projects their requirement over and above or on other than approved items and norms, which are outside the purview of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) norms such as restoration works of long term and permanent nature and ineligible items.

"These factors attribute the huge difference and gap in demand of the state and actual approval from the centre. Therefore, the state government should prepare memorandum in conformity with approved items and norms of assistance," MHA officials said.

The state government have also been advised that while submitting memorandum for assistance from NDRF, "they should prepare it strictly as per the norms only."

The parliamentary committee, headed by Congress MP Anand Sharma, further said that in the pattern of national cadet corps (NCC), a disaster management training corps (DMTC) can be initiated in schools and colleges not only to play the role of a string civilian corps to support the disaster management team but also to disseminate the practice in disaster management at the community level.

Significantly, the national disaster management authority (NDMA) has initiated a pilot scheme-Aapda Mitra with a view to creating a pool of volunteers by training of 200 volunteers in each 30 project districts of 25 states of India in disaster response so that they can respond to their communities immediate needs in the aftermath of a disaster.

As many as 5116 volunteers have been trained so far. Assam, Bihar, Kerala, Maharastra, Odisha, Tripura, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh have been using their service in Covid-19 response.