India?s disaster preparedness, the CAG points out, isn?t working at anywhere near the levels it has to
Almost three decades after the Bhopal gas tragedy, and several major disasters later, not to mention the regular cycle of floods and drought, India remains woefully prepared to deal with either predicting disaster or dealing with its aftermath. Given that, as a CAG report points out, about 59% of the country?s land is prone to earthquakes, 76% of the coastline exposed to the risk of cyclones and tsunami, 12% of land susceptible to floods and 68% of cultivable area vulnerable to droughts, India enacted a Disaster Management Act in 2005 and set up a National Disaster Management Authority under this as the apex planning and supervising body.
A recent performance audit by the CAG, however, throws up some frightening facts. The NDMA?s national executive committee has not even met since May 2008, there is no national plan for disaster management, none of the major projects taken up by the NDMA has been completed so far, aerial radars to collect data during natural disasters are not functional, even the satellite-based communication network is not fully operational though it has been 6 years since the equipment was delivered. There are several such instances cited in the report, but given the report does not deal with big numbers of the type mentioned in the case of the 2G scam or Coalgate, chances are this will be another CAG report that will be dusted up after the next disaster strikes.