Review Of Preparations To Deal With Floods-Heat Waves: Amit Shah Said- Form Management Teams In Every State

Union Home Minister Amit Shah conducted a comprehensive review of the preparedness to deal with possible floods and heat waves in the country in a high-level meeting. He stressed on efforts to achieve the target of zero casualties in disaster management. Also said that flood crisis management teams should be formed in every state of the country. He said in the meeting that at least 60 lakes should be included in the plan to develop an early warning system for 30 high-risk lakes in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). There should be an integrated system for flood forecasts at the Center and State levels.

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He said that Flood Crisis Management Teams (FCMT) should be formed in every state and activated. He said that better awareness and holistic approach has been developed through the guidelines issued by NDMA regarding disasters but the implementation of these guidelines should be reviewed at the state, district and municipal level. He said that NDMA should study how many states are following the instructions of the Home Ministry and the guidelines of NDMA to deal with forest fires, heat waves and floods. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we will have to work on implementing the vision of zero casualty disaster management.

Explore possibilities of water conservation – Home Minister

Amit Shah said that more possibilities of improving water conservation should be explored through water harvesting and check dam projects. Our objective is to ensure minimum damage to the agriculture sector due to heat wave and also to conserve water by building check dams on the rivers. He said that CAMPA funds should be used to make the efforts being made for environmental balance multidimensional.

‘Forecasts and warnings should be widely disseminated’

The Home Minister said that a master plan should be prepared to deal with the changes in weather patterns due to climate change and the increasing disaster related challenges arising from them. He told the officials that instead of creating new apps or portals, they should now focus on improving the existing apps and portals by consolidating them. He said that weather forecasts and warnings should be disseminated widely and effectively.

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Plans should be implemented on ground – Home Minister

Amit Shah said that efforts should be made to further improve the assessment of the coming monsoon by studying the deaths during this season, the accuracy of forecasts and the damage caused to the agricultural sector. He praised the coordination between various ministries/departments. Said that now the time has come that our climate related plans should reach the ground.