NEW DELHI: Parliament on Tuesday passed Amendments to the Disaster Management Act-2024, with Home Minister Amit Shah asserting that there would be no centralisation of power in handling disasters.
Shah also launched an attack on the Congress, saying that the latter’s management of the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund lacked transparency and accountability. On the other hand, the BJP government used the PM’s Relief Fund for public welfare during the pandemic, he said.
During his reply to the debate on Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill-2024, Shah said, “Under the Congress regime, only one family had control over the PM’s Relief Fund, while the Congress party president used to be its member. The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation also received funds from the PM’s Relief Fund.”
“The foundation also received funds from China, Zakir Naik NGO. Even public sector undertakings (PSUs) were funding the foundation,” he added.
Responding to the Opposition’s accusations of mismanagement during the Covid pandemic, Shah said the funds of the PM-CARE were used for providing critical infrastructure like ventilators and vaccination. Shah said both the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) would now become more effective.
“National and state databases will be created and states will be empowered to establish Urban Disaster Management Authorities (UDMAs) and State Disaster Response Forces (SDRFs),” he said.
Refuting charges of centralisation of power, Shah said the greatest power under the Bill had been given to the District Disaster Management Authority, which comes under the state governments.
He said the size and scale of disasters had changed, hence the responses should be changed accordingly. “With this Bill, we aim to go from reactive response to proactive risk reduction. From manual monitoring, we want to move towards AI-based real-time monitoring; and instead of radio announcements, we want to move towards social media, apps and mobile announcements,” Shah added.
He said the government wanted to move from a government-led response to a multi-dimensional response, in which society and citizens were involved. He said several apps were now available to track weather and disaster updates. “This has enabled the government to reach people who have a mobile with alerts about natural disasters,” he said.