This Article is From Dec 21, 2014

Professionals in Key Roles in Revamped Disaster Management Body

Professionals in Key Roles in Revamped Disaster Management Body

The government has decided to make the NDMA a lean fighting outfit.

New Delhi: Ending the practice of appointing politicians and retired bureaucrats with no background of disaster management, the government today named a scientist, an Armyman and a professional who has a long experience in humanitarian work with the United Nations as members for National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The vice chairman and five members of the NDMA had resigned in June after the BJP-led government took over. The new government had started a fresh process of inviting applications from domain experts adept in handling man-made and natural crisis.

The government has also decided to make the NDMA a lean fighting outfit. During UPA rule, the NDMA vice-chairperson enjoyed the rank of a Cabinet minister while members enjoyed the status of Ministers of State.

However, the Narendra Modi government has downgraded the posts and made the post of vice-chairperson equivalent to the Cabinet Secretary and members equivalent to Secretary in the central government.

The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairperson of the NDMA.

The last NDMA had a vice chairman and nine other members. This time, the Modi government has decided to appoint only four members along with a vice chairman.

The three members - Scientist Dr D N Sharma, Lieutenant General N C Marwah and UNDP member Kamal Kishore - were chosen out of 82 professionals who were short-listed. Inviting applications for appointment as members of the Authority, the Home Ministry had said that aspirants must have administrative, superintendence and management experience of disaster-situation and mitigation efforts.

In a notification, the ministry had said that candidates should have contributed towards policy and plan formulation for disaster management, response and mitigation.

Other criteria include academic achievements and contribution to developing response and mitigation mechanism for dealing with different types of disasters like flood, tsunami, cyclones, drought, earthquakes and other emergencies.

The government had faced flak for keeping NDMA virtually rudderless for six months after the last vice chairman and Congress leader M Shashidhar Reddy. Its members, mostly retired bureaucrats or police officers, had resigned after PM Modi took charge.

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