Disaster Management Plan of Ministry of Panchayati Raj

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 23, Mar 2022

Reference News:-

Union Minister of Panchayati Raj has released the “Disaster Management Plan of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj(DMP-MoPR)”.

Areas covered under the Plan:

1. Institutional arrangement for Disaster Management.
2. Hazard Risk, Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis.
3. Coherence of Disaster Risk Management across Resilient Development and Climate Change Action.
4. Disaster Specific Preventive and Mitigation Measures-Responsibility Framework.
5. Mainstreaming of Community Based Disaster Management Plan of Villages and Panchayats and so on.

Highlights of the plan:

• It aims to develop a culture of disaster resilience at the grassroots level among the Panchayats and Rural Local Bodies.
• It seeks to establish a framework to align the disaster management measures in rural areas to that of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
• Under the Plan, every Indian village would have a “Village Disaster Management Plan” and every Panchayat would have their Disaster Management Plan.
• All stakeholders including PRIs, elected representatives and functionaries of Panchayats etc. would participate in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the plan.

Need for Panchayati Level Plans:

Panchayat-level and village-level Disaster Management Plans to mitigate the challenges in the event of disaster form a foundational level.

The Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI), the representative body of the people, is the most appropriate institution from village to the district level in view of:

• Its proximity.
• Universal coverage.
• Enlisting people’s participation on an institutionalised basis.

Their close involvement will be able to make people more prepared for countering natural disasters as well as involve them in all possible preventive and protective activities so that the impact of the disasters are mitigated and the people are able to save their lives and property.