RAJYA SABHA
The strategy adopted
for dealing with national calamities envisages building up of
capabilities at National, State, District, Block and Village
levels for mitigation and preparedness for natural and manmade
disasters as well as for rapid intervention in the event of
such disasters. This, inter-alia, involves strengthening of
search and rescue capabilities by training and equipping specialized
teams. The Minister of State for Home Shri I.D. Swami told the
Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that the Government has
initiated to train such teams at the national level.
In December,
2002, the Ministry of Home Affairs inter-alia advised the State
Governments to consider setting up specialized composite search
and rescue teams comprising one company of the State Armed Police
trained and equipped to carry out specialized search and rescue,
one mobile engineering unit with necessary equipments and one
medical assistance team. The steps taken by the State Governments
will be reviewed in the Conference of State Relief Commissioners
in March 2003.
The Minister
said that a National Committee on Disaster Management had been
set up to deliberate on the necessary institutional and legislative
measures needed for an effective and long-term strategy to deal
with national calamities. In the first meeting of the National
Committee held on 18th February, 2001, it was decided
that in so far as the long-term strategy for dealing with major
calamities in future is concerned, a Working Group would go
into these issues.
