Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that India has increased its stature in disaster management and now its capacity is at par with many other countries in the world, and on many occasions, even ahead of them.

“We have traveled a long way in disaster management. The rehabilitation-centric approach was there before the decade of the 90s. Now, we are able to get information much before any disaster. Due to this information received earlier, we are able to save lives and reduce the damage to the property. In disaster management, we are at par with the world in many places and ahead of several countries on various occasions. It is a matter of joy for us,” the Home Minister said while addressing the Annual Conference on Capacity Building for Disaster Response 2022.

Due to various steps taken by the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah said, “We (India) have managed to decrease the number of deaths that occurred during a disaster”.

The Home Minister also stressed the need for capacity building and proper percolation of information regarding any disaster to the lower level.

“We get exact information much before any disaster, as well as incidents of lightning too. There is a need to percolate this information to the lower level on time. To alert the area where the disaster is about to happen, reduce the damage to property, and save lives. Professional mastery in all these things is not achieved until there is proper coordination between all the agencies linked to disaster management,” Shah said.

Lauding the efforts of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for saving lives of people and helping the needy during a disaster like situation as well as supporting State Disaster Response Forces (SDRFs), the Home Minister directed the chief of the force Atul Karwal to ensure that the information received about any disaster or lightning incidents reaches not only adistrict level but also at the village or the place where it may take place.

He stressed the need to percolate information regarding lightning incidents as soon as possible, mentioning that the time period in these incidents is limited.

“NDRF should work to establish a system so that an alert regarding incidents of lightning reach among people in a fast way…NDRF DG Atul Karwal should work with the director to establish the alert system by combining the strength of NCC, NSS and Home Guards. A women’s self-help group will have to be added to this work. The training should be done at the gram panchayat level too. Besides, there should be a system that people are trained in regional language in each and every state,” Shah added.

The Minister said that these trained people will work like NDRF and they will fulfill the need for “stop-gap” management until the SDRF and NDRF teams reach the areas hit by natural disasters.

He further said over 21,000 personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been trained and nearly 32 guidelines have been made as preventive measures during a disaster.

The Minister also spoke about flood mapping systems while constructing roads and other points linked to mitigating disaster-like situations.