Talking to reporters here on Saturday, Dr Negi who is also the director of the National Geophysics Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad, said, in spite of having separate departments of meteorology, geology and the NGRI, there is a need for having an exclusive disaster management ministry in the country.

The ministry should have an exclusive mandate of dealing with disasters, he said, adding, in the present system responsibilities are not clearly defined. "It seems the country has not learnt any lessons from the Latur earthquake which claimed over 10,000 lives and destroyed property worth Rs 1500 crore," he said.

It may be recalled that soon after Latur quake Dr Negi predicted more earthquakes in the country and called for preparedness.

Dr Negi differed with the anti-dam activists that big dams would lead to more earthquakes in the country by saying that till date there is no such example. He also advocated for setting up a seismic research institute in the country. Earlier, giving a lecture on "Earthquakes in the Indian peninsula," organised by the Centre For Environment Protection Research and Development (CEPRD), Dr Negi said, Union Defence Minister George Fernandes was right when he claimed loss of over one lakh lives, as the quake was of that enormity.

Brushing aside fears of earthqakes in Indore, Dr Negi said chances of an earthquake here was very remote as Indore lies under Zone II, which meant that the possibility of quake in the region was as good as nil. "Even if it comes (quake) its intensity will not be more than 4.5 on the richter scale," he added.