India Disaster Management Congress gets underway - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

General N.C.Vij, Vice-chairman of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), today inaugurated the second India Disaster management Congress. In his remarks, General Vij said that NDMA has come out with guidelines on various types of disaster and these need to be converted into actionable plans for the concerned ministries to make the country disaster resilient. He said that our aim is to bring out a paradigm shift in the approach towards awareness and response to disasters. He also exhorted the corporate to adopt and implement the Govt's plans drawn up for mitigating the effects of disasters. He said that a revamp plan of Rs. 10,000 crores for the Indian Meteorological Department has been conceived which will have a long term effect in achieving disaster resilience. He also stressed on the coordination mechanism amongst the States to finalize plans and programmes related to disaster management. Referring to the various ground level plans with NDMA has initiated, General Vij said that 90,000 engineers and 44,000 architects would be trained during the next five years to take the concepts of disaster resilient technology and knowledge to the ground level. A pilot project on schools building with Rs. 48 crore outlay is also being launched. Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said that National Disaster Management Policy has since been approved by the Govt. and will be made public very soon. With a view to bringing about better awareness, disaster management has been inducted into the school education curriculum. Pillai said that 25,000 personnel have been trained to meet the challenge more effectively. He assured that all major recommendations coming out of the deliberations at this Congress would be followed up by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Over 1200 scientists, scholars and practitioners working on different aspects of disaster risk reduction and management across the world are attending the Congress, which has been organized by the NIDM.