Rajnath Singh inaugurates second meeting of National Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction

The theme of the Second meeting of NPDRR is “Disaster Risk Reduction for Sustainable Development: Making India resilient by 2030”.

The Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Harsh Vardhan, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju and Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Dr. P. K. Mishra were also present on the occasion.

The NPDRR is a multi-stakeholders National Platform headed by the Union Home Minister and it promotes participatory decision making in disaster management, and strengthens federal policy of our country.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajnath Singh said that NPDRR is a multi-stakeholders National Platform for sharing the experiences in disaster management and for making a collective effort for disaster risk reduction. 

He emphasized the role of prevention and mitigation in reducing disaster losses.

He pointed out that 1 extra Rupee spent on disaster preparedness and mitigation could save 10 Rupees of disaster loss.

He recollected global agreements like Sendai Framework, Sustainable Development Goal and Paris Agreement on Climate Change (COP21) for disaster risk reduction.

He highlighted the ongoing efforts of Governments in disaster risk reduction like preparation of disaster management plan and policy, development of early warning systems, construction of cyclone shelters and saline embankments, raising of disaster response forces at national and state levels and capacity building of communities through continuous training and awareness programme.

Shri Rajnath Singh also shared the recent initiatives of Government of India for increasing the regional co-operation, like launching of dedicated satellite for South Asian Countries, Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016 and setting up of SAARC disaster management centre.

He appealed to the stakeholders to prevent “preventable death” caused by disasters and also prepare an action plan for vulnerable communities of societies. As sustainable developments are closely related with better disaster management, he urged all stakeholders to make all development initiatives disaster resilient. He informed that 14 pre-events were organized as build up to this meeting.

Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, informed that India is a disaster prone country and stressed the need to continuously enhance our preparedness and risk reduction measures.

He referred to 10 point-agenda for disaster risk reduction given by our Prime Minister during AMCDRR 2016 and urged the participants to draw concrete plans to implement this agenda into reality.

He requested the disaster managers to give proper consideration to geo-physical condition of the particular State/UTs, while making any action plan for disaster risk reduction.

R. K. Jain, Member, National Disaster Management Authority in his welcome address highlighted the achievements of Government of India in disaster risk reduction.

A film emphasizing the theme that Disaster Management is Everybody’s Business was screened. Further, version 3.0 of National Database on Emergency Management (NDEM) was launched by Rajnath Singh. This version of 3.0 is device independent and browser independent and equipped with latest resource mapping tools and audio and video conference facilities.