BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to streamline and strengthen the disaster mitigation ecosystem, the state government is learnt to be planning to merge the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) with the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA).
Sources said a proposal for the integration is being prepared by the Revenue and Disaster Management (R&DM) department which will be submitted to the government for consideration and approval soon.
OSDMA, a first-of-its-kind body then, was set up by the state government as an autonomous organisation in December 1999 just after the Super Cyclone which caused unimaginable destruction in the state’s the coastal districts and claimed nearly 10,000 lives. It was registered as Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, as a non-profit making charitable institution but later rechristened as the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority by the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD-BJP alliance government in 2008.
However, around the same year, the state also formed the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), a statutory body, as per the provisions of Centre’s Disaster Management Act 2005. While SDMA functioned as the statutory body of 10 members headed by the chief minister, the state government also decided to continue with the OSDMA, headed by the chief secretary as its governing body head.
The OSDMA, however, was the main agency for disaster-related affairs from mitigation to relief and rehabilitation, considering the projects worth Rs 2,200 crore it was implementing to strengthen state’s disaster response system and apparatus.
“As both the bodies are meant to discharge the same functions, the government is now considering to merge them into one organisation. This will also elevate OSDMA’s status as a statutory body, widening its scope of work and enabling it to seek more central funds,” said an official.
He said the ongoing programmes as well as its organisational set up will also not be affected much by the move. Sources said post-integration the body will be directly accountable to the chief minister.