Not all disease outbreaks, chemical accidents reported: CAG

Government auditor CAG has found that not all disease outbreaks and chemical accidents taking place in different parts of the country are reported to Central authorities which could effect the response to epidemics.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its performance audit on disaster preparedness in India said Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) receives disease outbreak reports from the States and Union Territories on weekly basis and many of them do not send report on outbreaks to CSU regularly.
"Reporting from five states and UTs was below 50 per cent during 2012. Further, reporting from another seven states and UTs was between 50 and 79 per cent during 2012. Seven districts in the country had never reported data for Integrated Disease Surveillance Project till July 2012," it said.

The CAG said there were only 12 chemical accidents reported since 2009 to the Chemical Accident Information and Reporting System (CAIRS).
"The authorities were, however, not reporting all the chemical accidents regularly as even chemical accidents reported in the national Chemical Disaster Database published by the Ministry of Environment and Forests were not reported in CAIRS," it said.