New Delhi, Sept. 10 -- Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday called for a "whole of government" approach to disaster management and directed ministries to take measures aimed at achieving "zero casualty" during disasters.

Chairing the third meeting of the Governing Body of the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Shah said India's disaster management system had undergone a "comprehensive transformation" over the past 12 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.

He said the country had moved from a disaster response and relief-centric approach towards risk reduction, early warning and zero casualty.

Shah stressed that every government department should establish a dedicated cell to advance its disaster management agenda. The functioning of these cells should be reviewed by the concerned heads of departments at least once every three months, he said.

The Home Minister said environmental protection was among the most effective means of disaster management and called for risk reduction, resilience and nature conservation to be made integral to national development.

He asked the NIDM and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to review global research and practices in disaster management and take steps to adopt them in India. The Agriculture Department was directed to remain prepared for locust attacks from Pakistan.

Shah also called for comprehensive national guidelines covering all types of disasters, with clear do's and don'ts for different categories of people. He assigned NIDM the task of training, while asking the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Forces (SDRFs) and other agencies to operationalise the guidelines.

He proposed that after every disaster, a joint task force comprising the NDMA, NDRF, NIDM and SDRFs should conduct a detailed analysis and prepare a comprehensive report to strengthen future preparedness and response.

Highlighting increased government spending, Shah said allocations under the State Disaster Response Fund had risen nearly fourfold, while those under the National Disaster Response Fund had increased threefold.

"About 2.5 lakh crore rupees have been spent during the last eleven years," he said.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.