NEW DELHI: Hampered by lack of even basic infrastructure, the National Disaster Management Force (NDRF) has been fighting against all odds to provide relief in disaster hit areas of the country. In contrast, the apex National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) with its massive infrastructure has little to show for itself. On September 9, at the height of the Jammu and Kashmir floods, all an NDMA official had to say was, “The question is not whether Jammu & Kashmir had a disaster management plan or not. The question is did the state ever realise that it is vulnerable to floods.”
VULNERABLE STEPCHILD: Neither the government, nor the NDMA, which has brought the NDRF under its administrative control following CAG observations, realize how vulnerable the force is. It was established in 2006 as a specialised response organisation to natural and man-made disasters and has over 11,000 trained rescuers, who have been both saviours and caretakers in the aftermath of Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir disasters. In comparison with NDMA’s approx 75000 sqft office, NDRF operates from a mere 4,500 sqft— approximately the size of two HIG flats combined together—for office space taken on rent in RK Puram, Delhi. Its chief, the Director General, NDRF, lacks a dedicated office. Its headquarters has no reception and hardly any space for visitors to sit and seek redressal of grievances in the wake of natural calamities. During a crisis situation, its small conference hall—smaller than a 30X30 ft bureaucrat’s cabin in Raisina hill—is converted into a Crisis Command Centre. Moreover, the government has sanctioned only 16 posts at headquarters, from the DG to the clerk to handle all functions. NDRF owns no dedicated vehicles like trucks and jeeps, not even a car for its DG.
Eight out of ten Battalions of NDRF (each NDRF Battalion consists of 1,149 personnel) deployed across the country have no permanent buildings and facilities for its men. Only two permanent structures exist at Mundali, Odisha and Pune. The rest eight—in Guwahati, Kolkata, Patna, Ghaziabad, Vadodara, Bhatinda, Vijaywada and Arakonam—are operating out of makeshift structures and tents. This is despite the fact that India is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world due to its geo-climatic conditions combined with high population density.
VICTIM OF POWER TUSSLES: The force which battles nature’s fury including flood, earthquake and storms to save people’s lives and clean up ravaged areas in the time of need itself has become a victim of a calamitous struggle for control. A senior NDRF officer said the organisation was put under the administrative control of NDMA in March 2014 through an order but it also reports to Home Ministry on operational matters, revealing an intriguing dichotomy.
“It is being tossed around between the NDMA and MHA. Since the NDMA has nothing else to showcase to justify its existence, it wants full control of NDRF. On the other hand MHA wants it under its own wing, as the NDRF is the only dedicated disaster response force with the central government. The system is letting the only disaster response agency fall apart because bureaucrats sitting in their AC rooms fail to recognise the hazardous condition the rescuers are facing on the ground,” an officer added.
And indeed they were. In two separate incidents in flooded Srinagar, two NDRF jawans were knifed by alleged Hurriyat supporters near Lal Chowk but carried out the evacuation as planned. Even during the Uttarakhand disaster last yea, 9 NDRF men were killed in an Air Force helicopter crash along with five airmen. While the IAF crew were honoured with posthumous gallantry medals and called “martyrs”, not a single NDRF personnel received any medal.
The NDMA, an apex body under disaster management act was constituted in September 2006 and is chaired by the Prime Minister of India. The allocation for total disaster management budget for 2014-15 was Rs 387.46 crore. There is no separate allocation for NDRF but an officer estimated that its total budget would be around Rs 200 crore.
“The NDRF should be strengthened and must be provided with more resources. In J&K we were operating in the most difficult terrain but in terms of resources, we have nothing in compare to other forces,” O P Singh, DG, NDRF said.
PERSONNEL CRISIS: The NDRF effort to access facilities is a classic tale of lethal babudom in operation. When the NDRF in 2009 submitted a request to Department of Expenditure (DoE) under the Finance Ministry for approval of 140 staff at its headquarters, with the intent to make the force bigger and India’s most reliable emergency responder, it was denied. DoE recommended that force’s head office should have only 16 members to coordinate with the government, the states and also to train and deploy personnel to tackle any emergency that may arise. The elite commando unit NSG on the other hand with only 6 battalions has 240 members posted in HQ.
Interestingly, the NDMA did not offer NDRF any space in its building that stretches over 200 square yards. “It is for NDMA to direct us for shifting into the same building since they have administrative control,” an officer said.
It is learnt that the NDRF had written several letters to MHA in the past seeking adequate office space. The last such request letter was forwarded to the urban development ministry by the then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in 2013. When NDRF approached the ministry, which controls the allotment of government space, they were told, “NDRF is in queue and will be entertained when the turn comes.”
When asked what NDMA was doing to provide more resources and office space to NDRF, Satya N Mohanty, Secretary, NDMA refused to comment pointing out that he cannot discuss the matter over the phone. Mohanty joined the NDMA only in February this year. After the controversial resignations of NDMA Vice Chairman retired General IC Vij and five members, he is holding the fort till the time the Modi government appoints replacements. But, his evasive response is not surprising as NDMA’s performance in carrying out statutory responsibilities of leading the centre’s response to all disasters has been seriously questioned by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report in 2013.
CAG HITS OUT: The CAG in its report submitted before parliament had stated that NDMA is ill prepared to handle a potential natural or manmade disaster. It had also pointed out that NDMA which comes under the Home Ministry, selected projects without proper ground work and 10 core projects launched by the authority including flood, school safety, mobile radiation detection system and national disaster management information system remain incomplete.
“One of the primary reasons for creating NDMA was to link disaster preparedness, response and rescue within one organisation. Instead, NDMA was developed into a dysfunctional think tank with little or no thinking for a unified disaster response. It needs NDRF for its survival as they have nothing else to sale to government,” an official said.
CAG in its report had mounted a scathing attack on NDMA saying that none of the major projects taken up by the apex body was completed and due to improper planning either the projects were abandoned midway or were still incomplete after lapse of a considerable period. An ambitious project of setting up weather radars was first mooted in 2006 and over Rs 35 crore was spent in the last six years on the project but the radars were yet to be set up. Similarly, satellite-based communication network for emergency situation could not be completed after spending over Rs 6 crore due to poor planning.
CAG had even pointed out that effectiveness of the NDRF was hampered by shortage of trained manpower, absence of required training facilities, infrastructure and equipment.
HAMSTRUNG AND HARROWED: The natural disasters have placed extraordinary demands on the NDRF but there is no improvement in its logistics capability and asset visibility.
“We need dedicated all terrain vehicles and air support during disaster to carry our boats and personnel. It should also be made nodal agency to coordinate the rescue and relief operation on the ground which is missing in the present arrangement,” O P Singh added.
In 2011, the government had decided that NDRF should have offices in at least 21 major cities across the country to train local forces to mitigate disaster but the states were less than forthcoming with land and infrastructure. In fact, they even charged NDRF money in lieu of land which was assigned to train the state forces for free. NDRF launched Regional Rescue Centres (RRC) in 8 states including Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Andman & Nicobar Island but the story is no different there either—the teams deployed in these sensitive areas are yet to get any permanent infrastructure.
“We do not get hazards allowance despite working in the most dangerous terrain while other forces are getting double than what we earn. We fought with the previous government for allowances at par with other forces but they were determined not to entertain our requests,” the officer added.
As the country lurches from disaster to disaster, the ultimate casualty would be disaster management on the ground.