Kevadiya (Guj): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said the Modi government is implementing the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) in eight coastal states with an outlay of over Rs 4,900 crore to reduce the sufferings caused to the coastal community by cyclones and other calamities.
Addressing a meeting here of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs on Disaster Management, Shah said under the ‘Aapdamitra’ programme for capacity-building of the community, one lakh community volunteers in 350 disaster-prone districts are being trained for disaster response and preparedness.
“In order to reduce the sufferings caused to the coastal community by cyclones and other calamities, the Modi government is implementing the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project in eight coastal states with a total outlay of Rs 4,903 crore,” he said.
The home minister said an early-warning system has been developed through innovative technologies such as SMS, mobile app and portal so that people can be sent an early warning about an impending natural calamity.
He said the ‘Common Alerting Protocol’ project is being implemented across the country to strengthen the last mile spread of early warnings.
Shah said due to the successful efforts of the government, the loss of life and property during the various calamities that have occurred in the last few years have been brought down to the minimum level.
He said its importance can be understood from the fact that around 10,000 people lost their lives in the super cyclone in Odisha in 1999, while in contrast only a few people died in recent cyclones.
The home minister informed that the Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) are being deputed to states immediately after they are affected by a severe calamity, without waiting for the memorandum from states.
He also informed that for the first time mitigation funds have been constituted at the National and State level.
The Central government has also allocated Rs 13,693 crore for the National Disaster Mitigation Fund and Rs 32,031 crore for the State Disaster Mitigation Fund for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26, he said.
Shah said the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is being strengthened, modernised and expanded throughout the country.
He said the government under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has adopted a holistic approach towards disaster management and has been made relief-centric, early warning-centric, proactive and early preparedness-based.

He said that earlier the country had only relief-centric approach towards disaster management which did not involve minimising the loss of life and property, but this approach has changed after Modi became the Prime Minister.

Shah informed the members of the committee that the budgetary provision for disaster management has been increased by 122 percent in the last eight years by the prime minister, which shows the priority given by Modi towards disaster management.

He said that under the leadership of Modi, the Central government has given priority to disaster management and climate change in the last eight years.

The home minister said the Ministry of Home Affairs, in collaboration with NDMA and NDRF, is playing an important role in helping the States and Union Territories by providing logistics and financial assistance and coordinating response and relief measures during natural calamities.

Union Home Minister said that to tackle with disasters on priority basis, the spirit of public participation imbibed under ‘Aapda Mitra Yojna’ launched at the local level is very important because till the time people do not join it, the work of disaster management does not reach the bottom.

He said India is at the forefront of the world in the field of disaster management and by the completion of the Centenary of Independence in 2047, India will further strengthen its position in this field.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, NDMA and NDRF are working diligently to reach this goal, he said.

He said that the government has prepared a pre-disaster preparedness protocol in the last eight years and included disaster management as a subject in 12th and graduation level education to sensitise the children to various aspects of disaster management.

MPs who attended the meeting include NK Premachandran, Kunwar Danish Ali, Ram Shankar Katheria, CM Ramesh, Rajendra Agarwal, Locket Chatterjee, Vijay Kumar Hansdak, NeerajShekhar, KC Ramamurthy.

Press Trust of India