NDMA stays headless for over a month
Rajnath Singh has decided to amend the Disaster Management Act to “re-design’’ the structure of the body
New Delhi: After the Centre promptly ousted UPA appointees from statutory bodies, the apex disaster management body in the country, the National Disaster Management Authority remains headless for a month.
Blame game has begun as the NDMA, once a top heavy body with eight members with MoS rank and one vice-chairman with rank of Cabinet minister, now remains a barren body with only one member who has refused to resign and fate of several disaster mitigation projects hanging in balance.
Ousted NDMA vice-chairman Shashidhar Reddy questioned the delay in re-constituting the body which functions directly under PM Narendra Modi.
He expressed apprehension that the Centre in “trying to re-invent the wheel’’ giving weightage to “political gains’’ is tampering with the “disaster preparedness’’ of the country.
Sources said that Union home minister Rajnath Singh has decided to amend the Disaster Management Act to “re-design’’ the structure of the body.