National Disaster Management Authority today observed its 11th Formation Day The Addl. Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Dr. P. K Mishra while presiding as the Chief Guest for Valedictory session, congratulated NDMA team for successfully addressing the relief, response and rehabilitation efforts in Kashmir and Nepal. He further mentioned that it would be important to manage the multifaceted nature of risk in times to come and therefore it is important to invest in capacity building at technical, managerial and operative areas in preparedness and response in the country. The inaugural session was followed by four technical sessions to deal with issues relating to four major calamities, namely, cyclone, earthquake, floods and landslides. The first one was focussed on Cyclone Risk Mitigation and implementation of World Bank Aided National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP). This session witnessed presentations from NDMA, IMD and States of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh where each of the representatives shared their experiences on early warning and management of cyclones from a technical as well as administrative perspective. The second session was on earthquake risk mitigation where State Government of Gujarat, Government of Sikkim and Ministry of Earth Sciences shared their experiences in terms of best practices and lessons learnt in the areas of seismic risk reduction. The third session was focused on Flood Risk Mitigation where State Governments of Assam and Bihar as well as Central Water Commission highlighted and shared the measures and insights on flood management and control. The fourth session was focused on Landslides risk mitigation where State Government of Uttarakhand, Government of West Bengal and Geological Survey of India highlighted areas of concerns with respect to Landslides risk management in the country. The broad framework of the NDMAs proposed pilot projects on earthquake, floods and landslides were discussed and deliberated in each of the technical sessions. The National Disaster Management Authority observed its 11th Formation Day on 28th September 2015 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. This day also marked the completion of a decade of the efforts taken by the Authority to strengthen, integrate and mainstream disaster risk reduction in the development interventions of the country. The event was inaugurated by Shri Kiran Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs. He stressed that capacity development of stakeholders is indeed a very critical component towards effective risk reduction especially at the institutional level. Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Shri R. K Jain, Member Secretary, NDMA gave a detailed overview on the important milestones and initiatives undertaken by NDMA in the last one year. The inaugural session witnessed the release of NDMAs Training Manual on How to conduct Emergency Management Exercise by Minister of State for Home Affairs. The EMExes are large scale urban exercises focussed on creation of a pool of master trainers in various facets of disaster management in an urban area/city. The EMEx Training Manual is expected to guide the States and stakeholders as a ready reckoner to undertake Emergency Management Exercises in a scientific manner. The inaugural session also witnessed the release of the First Edition of NDMAs Quarterly Newsletter SAMVAD . The NDMAs newsletter is envisioned as a platform for establishing communication between the disaster managers across the country especially for States as well as stakeholders for sharing their experiences on disaster risk reduction efforts.
